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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  DIEGO 


II  mil  II  iMii  III  III  III  II  Ml  II 

3  1822  00776 


76 


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1^  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
IJNIVERSITY  Of   CALiFORNIA,  SAN 
LA  JOLLA,  CALIFORNIA 


THE 


TICHBORNE  TRIAL 


NEW    YORK : 

JAMES     COCKCROFT     &     COMPANY. 

187s. 


3/ 


THE 


TICHBORNE    TRIAL. 


IN  the  early  years  of  the  reign  of  His  Majesty  King 
Louis  Phillippe,  there  resided  in  the  Rue  de  la  Fer- 
rne,  Paris,  an  English  gentleman  and  his  family,  named 
Tichborne.  Paris  has  undergone  a  wondrous  transfor- 
mation since  then,  but  the  Rue  de  la  Ferme,  or  more 
correctly  the  Rue  de  la  Ferme  des  Mathurins,  is  still  rep- 
resented by  fragments  of  its  former  self  which  may  be 
found  by  the  curious  in  the  Quarter  of  the  Madeleine. 
Servants  and  tradespeople  knew  this  gentleman  as 
"  Monsieur  Teeshborne."  He  had  a  French  wife,  "a 
French  valet  and  footman,  a  French  circle  of  friends  and 
acquaintances.  He  spoke  French  like  one  of  them- 
selves. He  was  a  Roman  Catholic — his  wife  a  devout 
one.  Father  confessors,  and  other  dignified  clerical  per- 
sons, were  often  found  within  his  modest  suite  of  rooms 
above  the  entresol,  where,  in  Continental  fashion,  he  lived 
snugly,  and  was  only  to  be  approached  by  a  preliminary 
parley  with  the  cojicitrge  in  his  little  lodge  across  the 
paved  courtyard.  If  this  gentleman  was  not  exactly 
naturalized,  it  was  clear  that  his  family  were  in  a  fair  way 
to  become  part  and  parcel  of  the  great  French  nation. 
Perhaps  a  son  might  keep  up  associations  with  his 
father's  native  country;    but  in  the  natural  course  of 


I. — I 


2  MEMORIES    OF 

things  the  association  must  grow  weaker  and  weaker, 
until  at  last  the  fact  that  the  Tichbornes  were  known  to 
be  of  Ens^Hsh  origin  would  possibly  have  been  all  that 
distinguished  them  from  friends  and  connections  in  their 
adopted  land. 

Yet  Mr.  James  Tichborne  was  a  member  of  the  ancient 
family  of  Tichborne,  of  that  place  whose  name,  either 
in  its  modern  or  its  ancient  form  of  De  Itchenborne,  was 
famous  in  Hampshire  long  before  the  days  when  Gurth, 
the  swineherd,  blew  his  horn  in  the  glades  of  the  New 
Forest.  But  he  was  a  younger  brother.  More  than  that, 
he  was  a  younger  brother  without  any  reasonable  pros- 
pect of  ever  succeeding  to  the  baronetcy  and  estates  of 
the  Tichborne  family.  Younger  brothers  tike  various 
ways.  Some  go  into  the  Army,  some  into  the  Navy,  the 
Church,  the  Law.  Some  determine  to  carve  a  position 
for  themselves,  and  dream  of  founding  a  family  to  be 
known  as  the  younger  branch.  Mr.  Tichborne,  however, 
was  not  one  of  these.  He  had  a  private  fortune  quite 
sufficient  for  bis  wants,  and  even  for  a  considerable 
amount  of  luxury.  He  had  married  a  lady  about  whom 
there  was  a  certain  degree  of  mysterj*.  That  she  had  an 
English  father — Mr.  Seymour,  of  the  old  family  of  that 
name  at  Kiioyle,  in  Wiltshire,  was  known  to  some,  though 
it  was  better  known  that  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Tichborne 
was  a  French  lady  of  the  ancient  house  of  Bourbon 
Conti,  a  family  that  had  suffered  like  others  from  the 
great  social  deluge  of  1789,  but  had  retained  some  power 
over  possessions,  a  considerable  portion  of  which,  after 
long  years  of  litigation,  came  to  the  wife  of  "  Mons. 
Teeshborne."  With  these  sources  of  income  Mr.  Tich- 
borne led  an  easy  and  somewhat  idle,  though  unfortu- 
nately by  no  means  peaceful,  life.  He  was,  on  the 
whole,  a  good-natured  man,  a  kind  husband,  and  a  good 
father;  but  he  had   a  hasty  temper,  of  which  servants 


WESTMINSTER    HALL,  ^ 

and  even  relations  felt  at  times  some  of  the  effects.  But 
his  wife's  infirmity  in  this  way  was  far  more  notorious. 
Mrs.  Tichborne  was  what  is  known  as  a  spoiled  beauty. 
Slim,  graceful,  elegant,  and  at  that  period,  scarcely  more 
than  of  middle  age,  her  good  looks  would  have  made  her 
in  the  old  days  of  gallantry  a  famous  toast.  As  it  was, 
her  personal  attractions  were  proverbial,  and,  as  is  not 
uncommon  in  such  cases,  her  self-will  was  equally  well 
known.  Among  other  traits  in  her  character  was  a  sin- 
gular perverseness,  coupled  with  a  weakness  of  judgment 
which  rendered  her  an  easy  prey  of  that  numerous  class 
who  hang  about  the  devout  soliciting  charity.  Hence 
the  household  was  by  no  means  a  happy  one.  Mrs.  Tich- 
borne devoted  much  time  to  the  exercise  of  her  relig- 
ion ;  and  she  had — a  few  years  later  at  least — in  pretty 
constant  attendance  her  confessor,  the  Abb6  Salis,  of 
whom  the  world  has  heard  something.  To  do  him  jus- 
tice the  Abbe  was  cognizant  of  the  infirmities  of  her  dis- 
position, and  gave  her  good  advice,  which,  however,  was 
not  often  followed.  Unhappily  the  domestic  differences 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tichborne  were  not  always  concealed 
from  servants  or  friends.  Mr.  Tichborne's  "  faithful  Gos- 
sein,"  the  valet,  who  had  been  with  him  from  the  earliest 
period  of  his  married  life,  knew  much  of  these  domestic 
sorrows ;  and  the  Jiabitiids  of  that  circle — the  old  friends 
who  were  at  home  at  their  table — saw  more  than  once  un- 
pleasant tokens  of  these  matrimonial  storms  which  were 
rather  the  rule  than  the  exception  in  that  household. 
Still  Mr.  Tichborne  loved  his  wife,  and  while  lamenting 
his  miseries  most  bitterly  rarely  failed  to  mingle  with  his 
complaints  some  expression  indicating  affection.  Un- 
fortunately Mrs.  Tichborne's  weaknesses  increased  with 
years,  and  developed  into  an  eccentricity  which,  if  it  was 
not  madness,  seemed  to  many  only  to  be  explained  by 
reference  to  that  cause. 


4  MEMORIES    OF 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tichborne  had  married  in  the  year  1827, 
and  on  the  5th  of  January,  1829,  a  son  was  born  to  them, 
whom  they  baptized  at  the  Madeleine  Church  in  the 
name  of  Roger  Charles.  Ten  years  later  they  had  an- 
other son,  who  was  known  as  Alfred  Joseph.  Two  little 
girls  were  also  born  to  them,  but  these  died  young,  so 
that  the  Tichborne  family  consisted  only  of  father, 
another,  and  the  two  sons.  Of  these  the  elder  one,  little 
Roger,  concerns  us  most.  There  came  a  time  when  it 
was  necessary  to  provide  instructors  for  the  lad,  and  Mrs. 
Tichborne,  resolute  in  the  determination  to  have  her 
own  way  in  all  things,  charged  herself  with  the  matter  of 
his  education.  A  tutor  was  engaged  for  him  named 
Chatillon,  whose  duty  it  was  not  only  to  teach,  but  to 
take  the  little  boy  out  to  play  in  the  public  gardens  of 
which  there  are  in  Paris  so  many.  Afterwards  there  was 
a  spiritual  instructor  for  the  boy  in  the  person  of  Father 
Alexis  Lefevre,  a  priest  who  has  since  become  renowned 
-as  a  preacher,  and  from  his  miraculous  escape  from  exe- 
cution by  the  Communists  in  the  civil  strife  which  fol- 
lowed on  the  conclusion  of  the  great  war  with  Germany. 
The  boy  loved  Father  Lefevre,  and  on  \}ci&  fete  day  of 
his  patron  saint  Alexis  was  accustomed  to  make  a  special 
visit  to  the  worthy  father,  taking  with  him  an  offering  of 
flowers.  As  intelligence  grew  he  confided  to  him  his 
childish  sorrows,  and  the  priest  gave  him  consolation. 
One  day  little  Roger  said  to  him,  "  Father,  why  is  your 
hair  all  v/hite?"  Then  the  father  told  him  how  once 
when  he  was  in  Spain,  and  when  he  was  still  a  young 
man,  he  dreamed  a  terrible  dream  of  his  father's  death, 
and  how  the  shock  brought  on  an  illness,  and  how  from 
that  time  his  hair  began  to  change,  and  in  the  end  grew 
prematurely  gray.  At  other  times  he  amused  the  boy 
-with  legends  of  the  saints,  telling  him  of  a  certain  man 
in  the  old  times  who  went  away  from  father  and  mother. 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  5 

and  for  some  strange  reason  returned  in  the  garb  of  a 
beggar,  and  lived  in  his  father's  great  house  a  poor  de- 
pendant, until  he  died,  and  the  secret  was  revealed.  Of 
instructors  in  the  lore  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
Roger  had  indeed  no  lack.  There  was  his  mother's  con- 
fessor, who  for  some  time  lived  in  the  same  house,  and 
would  occasionally  interrogate  the  boy  upon  his  studies. 
But  if  Roger  grew  to  be  a  sound  Catholic  it  is  certain 
that  he  did  not  become  a  good  scholar.  It  has  been 
pleaded  for  Chatillon  that  he  was  impeded  in  the  duty 
of  teaching  the  boy  by  Mrs.  Tichborne's  inveterate  habit 
of  interference.  Any  way  the  scholar  made  but  little 
progress  in  his  studies.  At  one  time  Mr.  Tichborne  in- 
sisted on  his  son  going  to  a  public  school,  and  accord- 
ingly he  was  placed  in  the  suburb  of  Vaugirard  at  an  es- 
tablishment kept  by  the  Abbe  Dupanloup,  who  has  since 
risen  high,  and  is  now  better  known  as  the  Bishop  of 
Orleans.  But  he  had  been  there  only  a  week  when  the 
restless,  self-willed,  and  flighty  Mrs.  Tichborne  interfered 
— insisted  that  her  son  should  not  observe  the  ordinary 
hours  and  regulations,  but  should  be  governed  by  a  code 
of  her  own  framing.  Abbe  Dupanloup  politely  refused 
to  accede.  A  large  school,  he  said,  must  be  governed  by 
its  own  laws,  and  the  Abbe  saw  no  reason  for  making  ex- 
ceptions in  favor  of  the  son  of  Monsieur  Teeshborne. 
So  poor  Roger  was  peremptorily  withdrawn,  and  con- 
signed to  the  care  of  a  tutor,  who  was  more  easily  con- 
trolled. 

All  this  while  Mr.  James  Tichborne  interfered  little,  or 
if  he  interfered  was  not  very  successful.  He  passed  time 
at  his  club,  where  he  was  regarded  as  a  good  conversa- 
tionalist. He  took  interest  in  politics  and  public  affairs,, 
and  sought  what  consolation  he  could  in  the  society  of 
his  old  friend  M.  d'Aranza,  the  Comte  de  Mondreville^ 
and  others.     His  visits  to  England  were  rare,  but  once  a 


6  MEMORIES    OF 

year  it  was  his  custom  to  make  a  trip  to  the  South  of 
France,  or  to  the  Channel  Islands,  or  across  the  Alps 
into  Italy.  Sometimes  Mrs.  Tichborne  accompanied 
him ;  on  one  memorable  occasion  little  Roger  and  his 
tutor  were  of  the  party,  and  this  time  they  went  into 
Brittany.  But  even  here  poor  Roger's  ill-fortune  pursued 
him,  for  one  day  when  they  were  bathing  in  a  little  bay 
at  Fornic  he  fell  from  a  rock  upon  his  head,  and  received 
so  severe  a  blow  that  for  some  hours  he  remained  insen- 
sible. These,  however,  were  but  slight  troubles  com- 
pared with  the  miseries  he  endured  from  the  mother's 
strange  fancies  at  home.  He  was  growing  old  enough  to 
understand  the  position  of  matters  in  his  household,  and 
was  witness  of  many  a  scene  of  discord  between  mother 
and  father  which  a  child  should  not  see.  Thus  he  came 
to  have  more  and  more  matters  to  confide  to  his  friend 
the  reverend  father-;  and  then  there  was  the  little  griev- 
ance of  how  the  mother  fed  him  on  the  Frenchwoman's 
everlasting  diet  of  thin  soup,  and  other  domestic  troubles. 
But  not  the  least  of  poor  Roger's  sorrows  arose  from  the 
mother's  faith  in  old  nostrum's,  and  in  her  persistence  in 
regarding  the  child  as  an  object  for  the  practice  of  what 
is  known  as  "  domestic  medicine."  Many  a  year  after 
that  the  lad  resented  inquiries  after  his  health  from  the 
over-anxious  mother,  as  if  he  had  been  threatened  again 
with  the  old  torments,  one  of  which  was  the  horrible  in- 
fliction of  an  issue  in  the  arm,  maintained  in  French 
fashion  by  inserting  a  pea  in  an  incision  made  for  the 
purpose,  and  keeping  it  there  until  the  irritation  which 
it  caused  produced  a  painful  sore.  For  three  years  the 
poor  boy  suffered  from  this  foolish  old  remedy  for  his 
imaginary  ailments,  complaining  and  fretting.  But  in 
the  Tichborne  household,  save  an  occasional  insurrection 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  James,  the  mother  ruled  supreme. 
When  the  boy's  slow  progress  in  learning  was  the  sub- 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  7 

ject  of  remonstrance,  new  tutors  were  engaged  one  after 
another,  but  the  result  was  the  same.  Now  and  then 
the  restless  lady  in  like  manner  engaged  new  lodgings, 
and  Roger's  home  was  shifted  from  one  street  to  an- 
other, though  always  near  the  same  quarter.  But  amid 
all  these  changes  there  was  no  variation  in  Mrs.  Tich- 
borne's  habit  of  controlling  the  teachers  of  her  son  ;  and 
thus  it  came  about  that  at  the  age  of  sixteen  Roger 
Tichborne,  though  he  spoke  French  with  the  ease  and 
command  of  language  of  a  young  gentleman  reared  in 
Paris,  in  the  society  of  refined  and  educated  persons, 
wrote  that  language  with  an  ignorance  of  correct  spelling 
that  would  have  disgraced  the  son  of  a  porter. 

Some  years  before  this  time,  however,  events  had 
occurred  in  England  which  aroused  Mr.  James  Tich- 
borne more  than  ever  to  the  necessity  for  giving  his 
eldest  son  some  different  training.  The  then  Lord  of 
Tichborne,  his  brother,  was  growing  in  years,  and  was 
not  likely  to  have  an  heir.  Indeed  it  was  the  common 
belief  of  the  county  folks  that  the  Tichborne  family 
must  ere  long  become  extinct,  the  foundation  of  this 
notion  being  attached  to  the  old  legend  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  "  Tichborne  Dole,"  the  story  of  which  was 
as  follows  :  In  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  Sir  Roger  de 
Tichborne  married  Mabella,  the  sole  heiress  of  the 
powerful  house  of  Lamerston,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight. 
This  lady  was  famed  for  her  piety  and  charity,  and  it  was 
commonly  believed  among  the  superstitious  peasantry 
of  those  days  that  she  had  the  power  even  of  working 
miracles.  When  worn  out  with  age  and  infirmities  she 
petitioned  her  husband  for  the  means  of  instituting  a  dis- 
tribution— or  "  dole,"  as  it  was  then  called — of  bread,  to 
be  given  to  every  person  who  should  come  to  the  old 
house  and  ask  for  it  on  every  Lady  Day  forever.  To 
4:his  request  her  husband  not  only  acceded,  but  promised 


8  MEMORIES    OF 

her  for  the  purpose  as  much  land  as  she  could  walk  round 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  house  while  a  billet  of  wood> 
which  was  to  be  lighted,  should  continue  to  burn.  It 
would  seem  to  have  been  a  somewhat  unkind  condition 
to  require  a  wife  weighed  down  with  age  to  perform 
pedestrian  exercises  of  this  kind  ;  and  the  concession  is 
unfortunately  open  to  the  suspicion  of  being  dictated  by 
the  belief  that  the  result  would  not  deprive  the  Lord  of 
Tichborne  of  any  very  large  portion  of  his  ancestral 
estates.  If  so,  however,  he  underrated  the  strength 
with  which  faith  and  charity  will  sometimes  endow  the 
weak.  Old  Lady  Tichborne  was  not  to  be  daunted  by 
the  trifling  difficulty  that  she  happened  to  be  bed-ridden. 
She  caused  herself  at  once  to  be  lifted  from  her  couch 
and  carried  to  a  choice  and  fertile  meadow  of  several 
acres  in  extent.  The  fire  having  then  been  applied  to 
the  faggot,  she  commenced  alternately  walking  by  the 
aid  of  props  and  crawling  upon  her  hands,  and,  finding 
herself  suddenly  blessed  with  unusual  power,  she  suc- 
ceeded in  completing  the  entire  circuit  of  the  meadow 
before  the  last  little  tongue  of  blue  flame  hovering  on 
the  wreaths  of  smoke  had  finally  dropped  out,  and  the 
faggot  was  reduced  to  ashes.  The  spot  where  this  semi- 
miraculous  event  took  place  is  still  pointed  out,  lying  to 
the  north-east  of  the  house,  and  it  has  ever  since  been 
known  by  the  name  of  "  The  Crawls."  Lady  Tichborne 
was  said  to  have  threatened  the  downfall  of  the  house- 
and  the  extinction  of  the  name  of  Tichborne  if  any  of 
her  successors  should  be  wicked  enough  to  abolish  the 
annual  work  of  charity.  Such,  indeed,  was  the  tenor  of 
the  old  legend  of  the  Tichborne  Dole,  which  was  annu- 
ally distributed  in  1,200  small  loaves,  in  the  fashion  which 
will  be  seen  in  our  engraving  from  Tilberg's  picture. 
But  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century  it  began  to  be 
felt  that  our  forefathers  were  not  always  as  wise  as  they 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  ^ 

were  benevolent — that,  in  fact,  the  Tichbornc  Dole  did 
but  httle  good  for  the  honest  and  deserving,  while  it  at- 
tracted in  great  numbers  the  idle  and  dissolute.  The 
"Dole  Day,"  in  fact,  was  attended  with  scenes  of  con- 
fusion and  disorder,  and  was,  therefore,  at  last  abolished. 
When,  shortly  after  that,  the  venerable  house  with  its 
two  wings,  as  depicted  in  Tilberg's  painting,  its  secret 
passages  and  quaint  staircases,  was  pulled  down  to  make 
way  for  the  present  modern  mansion,  the  conviction  that 
the  ancient  glories  of  Tichborne  were  shaken  became 
confirmed  ;  nor  did  it  matter  much  in  popular  estimation 
that  the  whole  annual  cost  of  the  "  Dole  "  continued  to 
be  bestowed  upon  the  poor  in  a  wiser  form.  Before 
long  the  people's  old  prophecy  must  have  its  fulfillment, 
and  Tichborne  would  be  without  an  heir.  Singularly 
enough,  this  notion  soon  began  to  receive  a  striking  con- 
firmation. Sir  Henry  Joseph  Tichborne,  who  succeeded 
to  the  baronetcy  in  1821,  was  popular  in  the  county. 
His  hale  and  robust  form,  his  light  hair  and  clear  blue 
eyes,  his  frankness  and  good  humor,  his  jovial  frame  and 
bearing,  suggested  to  visitors  of  the  Tichborne  family 
recollections  of  Cedric  in  the  romance  of  "  Ivanhoe," 
and  constituted  him  the  very  ideal  head  of  a  race  un- 
questionably of  Saxon  descent.  But  for  all  this,  people 
said  that  the  curse  of  Lady  Mabella  was  upon  him  and 
his  house.  Witness  the  fact  that,  though  time  after 
time  a  child  was  born  to  him.  Providence  blessed  him 
with  no  male  heir.  Again  and  again  the  news  came  that 
a  child  was  born  at  Tichborne,  but  country  folks  shook 
their  heads,  and  foretold  that  it  was  "a  girl."  And  they 
were  right.  Sir  Henry  had  seven  children,  of  whom  six 
lived,  and  were  celebrated  for  their  good  looks  and  their 
tall  and  handsome  proportions ;  but  all  the  seven  were 
daughters.  Still  there  was  Sir  Henry's  brother,  Edward 
Tichborne,  who  had  taken  large  estates  under  the  will  of 


lo  MEMORIES    OF 

a  Miss   Doughty,  and  with  them  had  assumed  the  name 
of  that  lady,  and  he  was  after  Sir  Henry  the  next  heir. 

Edward  had  a  son  and  daughter.  But  one  day  there  came 
the  news  that  another  step  had  been  reached  towards 
the  fulfillment  of  the  dismal  old  prophecy.  Sir'Edward's 
little  boy  had  died,  and  then  it  was  that  Mr,  Tichborne 
perceived  more  clearly  the  error  that  he  had  made  in 
permitting  Roger  to  grow  up  ignorant  of  English  habits 
and  totally  unacquainted  with  the  English  tongue.  Ed- 
ward Doughty  was  an  old  man.  His  brother,  James 
Tichborne  himself  was  growing  in  years.  The  prospect 
of  Roger  one  day  becoming  the  head  of  the  old  House 
of  Tichborne,  which  had  once  been  so  remote,  had  now 
become  almost  a  certainty.  It  would  not  do  for  the 
Lord  of  Tichborne  to  be  a  Frenchman  ;  sooner  or  later 
he  must  learn  English,  and  receive  an  educatic^n  fitting 
him  to  take  the  position  which  now  appeared  in  store 
for  him.  All  this  was  clear  enough  to  Mr.  James,  but 
not  so  clear  to  his  weak-headed  wife.  The  father  did, 
indeed,  obtain  her  consent  to  take  the  boy  over  to  Eng- 
land, and  let  him  see  his  uncle  and  aunt,  the  Doughtys, 
at  Upton,  in  Dorsetshire,  and  his  uncle,  Sir  Henry,  at 
the  ancestral  home  down  in  Hampshire.  But  Roger  was 
then  but  a  child,  and  as  he  grew  older  Mrs.  Tichborne 
became  more  than  ever  resolute  in  her  determination 
that,  come  what  might,  her  darling  should  be  a  French- 
man. What  cared  she  for  the  old  Hampshire  traditions? 
France  was  to  her  the  only  land  worth  living  in ;  a 
Frenchman's  life  was  the  only  life  worthy  of  the  name 
Her  dear  Roger  might  succeed  to  the  title  and  estates 
but  she  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  his  going  to  Eng- 
land. It  was,  in  her  imagination,  a  land  of  cold,  bleak 
rains  and  unwholesome  fogs.  But  it  was  worse  ;  it  was 
the  country  of  a  people  who  had  been  false  to  their 
ancient  faith.     Even  the  Tichbornes,  though  still  Catho- 


WESTMINSTER     HALL.  ii 

lies,  had  not  always  been  true  to  their  religion.  Why 
should  her  Roger  go  to  live  in  that  wilderness  of  in- 
fidelity, when  there  was  France,  and  above  all  Paris,  open 
to  him,  and  friends  and  connections  formed  there  from 
childhood  always  ready  to  welcome  him  ?  For  herself  at 
least,  France  must  be  her  home,  and  the  idea  of  parting 
with  her  Roger  was  hateful.  The  result  of  all  this  was 
that  Mrs.  Tichborne  had  planned  out  for  the  future  heir 
of  Tichborne  a  life  of  perpetual  absenteeism.  He 
■should  marry  into  some  distinguished  family  in  France ; 
or  if  Italy  should  furnish  him  a  bride,  nothing  short  of  a 
Princess  should  share  his  fortune.  If  he  went  into  the 
army  it  should  be  in  some  foreign  service.  But  in  no 
case  should  he  go  to  Tichborne,  or  set  foot  in  England 
again,  if  she  could  help  it. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  Mr.  James  Tichborne  was 
like  many  other  weak  men  who  have  a  self-willed  wife. 
He  put  off  the  inevitable  day  when  on  some  point  of 
duty  it  is  necessary  to  decide  upon  a  course,  and  take  it. 
Finally,  he  achieved  his  purpose  by  a  ruse.  Roger  was 
in  his  seventeenth  year  when  the  news  arrived  that  Sir 
Henry  had  died.  It  was  right  that  Mr.  James  Tichborne 
should  be  present  at  his  brother's  funeral,  and  reason- 
able that  he  should  take  with  him  his  eldest  son,  Roger. 
Accordingly,  Roger  took  leave  of  his  mother  under 
solemn  injunctions  to  return  quickly.  But  Mr.  Tich- 
borne had  no  intention  of  allowing  his  son  to  return. 
The  boy  attended  the  funeral  of  his  uncle  at  the  old 
chapel  at  Tichborne,  went  to  his  grandfather's  place  at 
Knoyle,  and  thence,  by  the  advice  of  relations  and 
friends,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  boy  himself,  he  was 
taken  down  to  the  famous  Roman  Catholic  College  at 
Stonyhurst,  and  there  placed  in  the  seminary  with  the 
class  of  students  known  as  "philosophers."  When  Mrs. 
Tichborne  learned  that  this  step  had  been  completed  her 


12  MEMORIES     OF 

fury  knew  no  bounds.       Roger  wrote  her  kind  and  filial 
letters   in    French — ill-spelt   it    is   true,    but    admirably 
worded,  and  testifying  an  amount  of  good  sense,  which 
promised  well  for  his  manhood.      But   Mrs.   Tichborne 
gave  no   reply,  and  for  twelve  months  the  son,  though, 
longing  ardently  for  a  letter,  got  no  token  of  affection 
from  the  resentful  mother.     Yet  Mrs.  Tichborne  was  not 
the  person  to  see  her  son  removed  from  her  control  with- 
out an  effort.     She  upbraided  her  husband  violently,  and 
there  was  a  renewal  of  the  old  scenes  in  the  Tichborne 
household ;  but   Roger  was  now  far  away,  and  the  dan- 
ger of  Mr.  Tichborne's  yielding  in  a  momentary  fit  of 
weakness  was  at  an  end.      Meanwhile  the  mother  wrote 
violent    letters    to   the   heads  of   the   college,    exposing 
family  troubles  in  a  way  which   called  forth  a  sorrowful 
but  wise  remonstrance  from  the  lad  himself.     Roger  was 
now  growing  to  manhood,  but  so  little  was  this  fact  re- 
garded by  the  mother  who  had  kept  him  in  tutelage  so 
long   that  she  planned  a  scheme  in  concert  with    one. 
Jolivalt,  who  had  been  a  tutor  of  Roger,  for  kidnapping 
the  youth,  and  bearing  him  out  of  the  Pagan  territory  of 
Lancashire  into  the  Christian  land  of  France.     The  con- 
spirators actually  started  on  their  expedition,  but  got  no 
further  than  Boulogne.     The  result,  however,  would  cer- 
tainly not  have  been  more  satisfactory  to  them  even  if 
they  had  got  to  Stonyhurst.     The  truth  was  that  fronfL 
the  moment  when  he  escaped  from  the  harassing  and  in- 
cessant control    of  the  mother  the  boy  had  become  a 
man.    He  had  already  a  fund  of  sound  common  sense,  he. 
was  fully  alive  to  the  necessity  of  study,  more  than  that 
he  had  a  judgment  and  a  will  of  his  own,  as  henceforth 
all  who  came  in  contact  with  Roger  Tichborne  quickly 
discovered.     What  was  the  precise  nature  of  his  studies 
at  Stonyhurst,  and  what  progress  he  made  in  them,  are. 
questions  that  have  been  much  debated,  but  it  is  certaim 


WESTMINSTER    HALL,  13 

that  he  applied  himself  resolutely  to  the  study  of  Eng- 
lish, and  made  such  progress  that,  although  he  could 
never  speak  it  with  so  much  purity  and  command  of 
words  as  when  conversing  in  his  mother  tongue,  he  learnt 
to  write  it  with  only  occasional  errors  in  spelling  and 
construction.  In  Latin  he  made  some  progress,  and  in 
mathematics  still  more.  He  attended  voluntarily  classes 
on  chemistry,  and  his  letters  evidence  an  inclination  for 
the  study  both  of  science  and  polite  literature. 

The  three  years  which  Roger  Tichborne  spent  at 
Stonyhurst  were  probably  the  happiest  of  his  life.  He 
had  many  school  friends,  and  what  was  more,  in  his  vaca- 
tions he  made  the  acquaintance  and  gradually  won  the 
affection  of  a  very  large  circle  of  relatives.  There  was 
his  grandfather,  Seymour,  who,  though  for  family  reasons 
he  was  never  called  by  that  title,  soon  became  accus- 
tomed to  see  the  youth  from  Paris  at  the  picturesque 
house  down  at  Knoyle,  and  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
Mr.  Seymour  became  to  Roger  something  more  than 
cousins.  The  six  surviving  daughters  of  Sir  Henry  had 
all  married,  and  were  settled  in  various  parts  of  England, 
and  at  their  houses  the  lad  who  had  no  home  of  his  own 
found  a  kind  reception.  But  there  was  one  house  above 
all  others  to  which  Roger  Tichborne  was  happy  to  go, 
and  it  is  some  evidence  of  the  amiable  character  of  the 
youth  that  after  a  short  time  there  was  no  place  to 
which  he  went  with  a  more  certain  anticipation  of  a  joy- 
ful welcome.  This  was  the  house  at  Tichborne,  then  in 
possession  of  his  father's  brother,  Sir  Edward  Doughty. 
There  was  a  certain  amount  of  delicacy  in  his  position 
towards  his  uncle  and  his  aunt.  Lady  Doughty,  which 
cannot  but  be  intelligible  to  any  one  who  has  the  least 
knowledge  of  human  failings.  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of 
things  that  either  Lady  Doughty  or  her  husband  could 
have  been    greatly  predisposed    towards    the    youthful 


14  MEMORIES    OF 

stranger,  and  Roger  was  shy  and  reserved  and  over-sen- 
sitive. He  had  the  misfortune  to  stand  in  the  place- 
which  they  must  once  have  ardently  hoped  that  their 
dead  child  would  have  lived  to  inherit.  Sir  Edward,  too, 
was  in  failing  health,  and  his  brother  James  was  an  old 
man.  The  time,  therefore,  could  not  be  distant  when 
this  youth,  with  his  foreign  habits  and  his  strong  French 
accent,  would  take  possession  of  Tichborne  Park  with  all 
the  ancient  lands.  More  than  that,  he  would  come  into 
absolute  possession  of  the  new  Doughty  property,  in- 
cluding the  beautiful  residence  of  Upton,  near  Poole  in 
Dorsetshire,  for  which  the  Doughty  family  had  so  strong 
an  affection.  It  was  through  Sir  Edward  alone  that  this 
property  had  been  acquired,  but  the  lady  who  had  be- 
queathed it  to  him  had  no  notion  of  founding  a  second 
family  ;  in  time  all  the  lands  and  houses  in  various  coun- 
ties bequeathed  by  her,  as  well  as  those  which  were  pur- 
chased by  trustees  under  her  will,  were  to  go  to  swell  the 
Tichborne  estates,  and  to  increase  the  grandeur  and  re- 
nown of  the  old  Catholic  family.  Upton  was  indeed  the 
favorite  home  of  the  Doughtys.  Sir  Edward,  who  had 
been  in  the  West  Indies,  had  returned  thence  with  his 
black  servant,  named  Andrew  Bogle,  then  a  boy,  and  had 
married  and  settled,  doubtless  for  a  long  time  looking  on 
Upton  as  their  home  for  life.  It  cost  them  a  pang  to  re- 
move even  to  the  house  at  Tichborne.  It  was  at  Upton 
that  their  only  surviving  child,  Miss  Kate  Doughty,  had 
spent  all  her  early  years,  and  to  return  there  and  enjoy 
the  fresh  sea  breezes  in  the  summer  holidays  was  always 
a  delight.  It  was  hard  to  think  that  even  Upton  must 
pass  from  them,  and  that  the  day  was  probably  not  far 
distant  when  there  would  be  nothing  left  for  them  but  to 
yield  up  their  home  and  estates  to  the  new  comer,  and 
retire  even  upon  a  widow's  handsome  jointure  and  the 
fortune  of  Miss  Kate.      But  if  such  feelings  ever  passed 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  15 

through  the  minds  of  the  family  at  Tichborne  they  could 
have  been  only  transient.  The  shy,  pale-faced  boy  with 
the  long,  dark  locks  came  always  to  Tichborne  in  his 
holidays,  making  his  way  steadily  in  the  favor  of  that 
household,  and  this  not  from  interested  motives  on  the 
part  of  Lady  Doughty,  as  has  been  falsely  alleged,  and 
triumphantly  disproved,  but  clearly  from  something  in 
the  nature  of  the  youth  which  disarmed  ill-feeling.  It  is 
curious  to  observe  in  the  letters  which  Roger  Tichborne 
was  so  fond  of  writing  to  his  friends  the  evidences  of  how 
soon  the  English  instincts  that  had  been  so  carefully 
suppressed  by  his  French  mother  began  to  assert  them- 
selves. He  took  delight  in  country  life,  and  though  he 
did  not  bring  down  the  partridges  in  the  woods  or  throw 
the  fly  upon  the  surface  of  the  Itchen  with  a  degree  of 
skill  that  would  command  much  respect  in  the  county  of 
Hants,  he  did  his  best,  and  really  liked  the  out-door  life. 
In  hunting  he  took  a  genuine  delight  from  the  time  when 
he  donned  his  first  scarlet  coat,  with  the  regulation  but- 
tons of  the  Hampshire  Hunt,  and  he  rarely,  when  at  his 
uncle's,  missed  an  opportunity  of  appearing  at  ''  the 
meet  "  in  that  neighborhood.  Country  gentlemen  saw 
and  approved,  and  the  offense  of  an  heir  to  Tichborne 
being  half  a  Frenchman  was  probably  soon  condoned  in 
the  face  of  such  genuine  proof  of  sympathy  with  an 
English  country  gentleman's  pastime. 

The  time  had  now  come  when  Roger  should  think  of 
a  profession,  and  Mr.  James  Tichborne  again  gave  mortal 
offense  to  his  wife  by  determining  that  the  young  man 
should  go  into  the  army.  Mrs.  Tichborne  was  shocked 
and  amazed  that  the  English  army  should  be  chosen, 
when  Roger  could  easily  have  gone  into  a  foreign  ser- 
vice, and  storms  were  again  brewing  in  Paris ;  but  poor 
Mr.  Tichborne  made  up  his  mind  to  bear  the  brunt  of 
her  displeasure  at  his  pursuing  a  course  so  natural  as  that 


i6  MEMORIES    OF 

of  choosing  an  English  Hfe  for  his  son  and  heir.    Among 

the  cousins  of  Roger — daughters  of  Sir  Henry — was  one 

who  had  married   Colonel   William   Greenwood,  of  the 

Grenadier  Guards.      Their  house  at  Brookwood  was  but 

half  an  hour's  ride  from  Tichborne,  and  Roger  was  fond 

of  visiting  there.     Colonel  William's  brother  George  was 

also   in   the  army,  and  Colonel  George  took  kindly  to 

Roger,  was  fond  of  the  youth,  and  determined  to  do  his 

best  to  get  him  on.     So  he  took  him  one  morning  to  the 

Horse    Guards,    and    introduced   him    to    Lord  Fitzroy 

Somerset,  the    Commander-in-Chief,    afterwards    better 

known  as  Lord  Raglan,  who  promised  him  a  commission. 

There  was  a  little  delay  in  keeping  this  promise,  but  the 

young  man  did  not  go  troubling  uncles  again,  but  took 

the  self-reliant   course  of  writing   direct    to  the   Horse 

Guards,  to  remind  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  what  he 

had  said ;  and  before  long  Mr.  Roger  Charles  Tichborne 

was  gazetted  a  cornet  in  the  6th  Dragoons,  better  known 

as  the  Carabineers.     Roger  had  been  studying  hard  both 

at  Tichborne  and  at  Mr.  Seymour's  house  in  Grosvenor 

Square  at  military  matters.      He  passed  his  examination 

at  Sandhurst  satisfactorily,  and  went  straight   over  to 

Dublin  to  join  his  regiment.      From  Dublin  he  went  to 

the  south  of  Ireland,  and  twice  he  came  over  to  England 

on  short  visits.      He  went  through  the  painful  ordeal  of 

practical  joking  which  awaited   every  young  officer    in 

those  days,  and  came  out  of  it,  not  without  annoyance 

and    an   occasional   display  of  resentment,   yet,  on  the 

whole,   in  a  way  which  conciliated  his  brother  officers, 

and  no  man  was  more  liked  in  the  regiment  than  Roger 

Tichborne,     affectionately     nicknamed      among      them 

"  Teesh."      In     1852    the   Carabineers    came    over  and 

were  quartered  at  Canterbury.     They  expected  then  to 

be  sent  to  India,  but  the  order  was  countermanded,  and 

Roger  with    chagrin  saw   himself    doomed    apparently 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  17 

to  a  life  of  inaction.  With  chagrin,  for  he  was  now 
weary  of  life  in  England,  for  a  reason  that  was  well 
known  at  the  old  home  in  Hampshire,  but  which  was  as 
yet  a  secret  even  from  Mr.  James  and  Mrs.  Tichborne. 

There  is  a  letter  of  Roger  Tichborne  among  the  mass 
of  correspondence  which  he  kept  up  at  this,  and  indeed 
at  every  other  period  of  his  grown-up  life,  in  which  he 
'notices  the  fact  that  his  mother  still  dwelt  upon  her  old 
idea  of  providing  him  with  a  wife  in  the  shape  of  one  of 
those  Italian  princesses  of  which  he  had  heard  so  much. 
The  lady  who  had  sprung  from  the  great  House  of 
Bourbon  Conti  would  have  nothing  less  in  rank  for  her 
■son,  and  Italian  princesses  were,  to  her  mind,  not  difiticult 
to  find,  "though,"  said  Roger,  in  the  letter  referred  to, 
^*  I  would  not  give  a  sixpence  for  a  whole  wagon-load  of 
them."  In  fact,  Roger's  heart  had  already  no  place  un- 
occupied. 

In  all  his  visits  to  Tichborne,  though  on  one  occasion 
he  had  stayed  there  many  months,  Roger  had  for  many 
years  never  met  his  cousin.  Miss  Kate  Doughty,  the  only 
•child  of  his  aunt  and  uncle.  He  had  seen  her  long  be- 
fore, when  he  came  over  as  a  child  from  Paris  on  a  visit, 
but  Miss  Doughty  was  too  young  at  that  time  to  have 
retained  much  impression  of  the  little  dark-haired 
French  boy,  who  could  hardly  have  said  "  Good  morn- 
ing, cousin,"  in  her  native  tongue.  Some  dim  recollec- 
tion that  they  rode  on  ponies  together  in  the  grounds  at 
Upton,  attended  by  a  servant,  may  have  remained ;  but 
•since  then  Roger  Tichborne  had  grown  to  manhood,  and 
his  cousin  herself  was  coming  to  the  close  of  her  school- 
days. It  was  at  this  critical  period,  Roger  being  then 
twenty  years  of  age,  that  they  met  for  a  few  days  at 
Bath,  where  both  had  come  on  the  melancholy  duty  of 
taking  leave  of  Mr.  Seymour,  then  lying  dangerously  ill 
and  near  his  death.  Then  they  parted  again  ;  Roger 
n. — 2 


i8  MEMORIES    OF 

went  to  Tichborne  for  a  long  stay,  but  Miss  Doughty  re- 
turned to  school  at  the  convent  at  Taunton.  In  the 
Midsummer  holidays,  however,  they  once  more  met  at 
the  house  in  Hampshire,  and  for  six  weeks  the  young 
cousins  saw  each  other  daily.  Then  Miss  Doughty  went 
away  to  Scotland  with  her  parents ;  but  the  "  cousin 
from  Paris  "was  assiduous,  and  took  upon  himself  the 
pleasant  duty  of  going  to  see  the  party  take  their  de-  • 
parture  from  St.  Katherine's  Wharf.  The  cool,  bright 
days  of  October  found  the  party  again  assembled  in  the 
walks  and  gardens  of  Tichborne  Park.  But  the  sterner 
business  of  life  was  approaching.  Roger  took  farewell 
of  uncle,  aunt,  and  cousin,  that  month,  to  go  to  Ireland 
and  join  his  regiment,  and  Miss  Doughty,  whose  school- 
days were  not  yet  ended,  went  down  to  a  convent  at 
Newhall,  in  Essex,  there  to  continue  her  studies.  When 
Roger  got  a  short  leave  of  absence,  his  first  thought  was 
to  visit  his  uncle  and  aunt,  who  had  so  affectionate  a  re- 
gard for  him.  There  was  a  summer  visit  to  Upton,  in 
Dorsetshire,  for  a  week,  when  Miss  Doughty  happened  to 
be  there ;  and  there  was  a  visit  to  Tichborne  in  January, 
1850,  when  there  were  great  festivities,  for  Roger  at- 
tained his  majority  on  the  fifth  of  that  month  ;  and  there 
were  family  balls  and  servants'  balls,  and  trees  planted  in 
honor  of  the  occasion.  But  again  the  cousins  took  fare- 
well, and,  as  cruel  Fate  ordained,  met  no  more  for  a  year 
and  a  half. 

It  was  no  wonder  that  Roger  loved  Tichborne,  with 
all  its  associations.  In  that  well-ordered  and  affectionate 
household  he  found  a  tranquillity  and  happiness  to  which 
he  had  been  a  stranger  in  his  own  home.  In  his  cor- 
respondence with  his  father  and  mother  at  this  time 
there  were  no  lack  of  tokens  of  a  loving  son ;  but  no 
one  was  more  sensible  than  Roger  of  the  miseries  of  that 
life  which  he  had  led  up  to  the  ever-blessed  day  when 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  19 

he  came  away  to  pursue  his  studies  at  the  Jesuit  College, 
and  to  learn  to  be  an  Englishman.  He  felt  deeply  for 
his  father,  and  the  sorrows  which  domestic  differences 
caused  him,  and  for  a  long  time  there  were  no  happier 
days  for  the  young  officer  of  Dragoons  than  those 
which  he  spent  with  Mr.  James  Tichborne  when  he 
came  over  on  brief  visits.  But  Tichborne  had  come  to 
be  his  home.  He  knew  all  the  green  lanes  and  fields  for 
many  a  mile  around  :  and  the  dull  sound  of  his  horse's 
hoofs  upon  the  turf  of  the  chalk  downs  was  music  in 
his  ears.  But  there  was  another  association — deeper 
and  more  tender — long  unsuspected,  yet  growing 
steadily,  until  it  absorbed  all  his  thoughts,  and  gave 
to  that  neighborhood  a  glory  and  a  light  invisible  to 
other  eyes.  Roger  had  spent  many  happy  hours  with 
his  cousin  ;  she  had  grown  in  those  few  years  from  a 
girl  almost  into  a  woman,  and  he  had  come  to  love  her 
deeply. 

To  Miss  Doughty  he  said  not  a  word ;  to  Sir  Edward 
he  dared  not  speak ;  but  one  day  Roger  took  an  oppor- 
tunity of  confiding  to  Lady  Doughty  the  new  secret  of 
his  life.  To  his  great  joy  his  aunt  did  not  discourage 
the  idea;  but  Miss  Doughty  was  still  but  a  girl  of 
fifteen  ;  and  there  was  the  grave  objection — more  than 
ordinarily  grave  in  the  eyes  of  professors  of  their 
religion — that  the  twain  were  first  cousins.  Still,  Catho- 
lic first  cousins  do  marry  with  the  leave  of  the  Church ; 
and  Lady  Doughty  had  too  much  regard  for  her  nephew 
to  feel  displeasure  at  the  thought  of  his  being  united  to 
them  by  a  closer  tie.  But  there  were  important  con- 
ditions. If  the  day  was  ever  to  come  when  she  could 
allow  him  to  speak  with  his  cousin  on  the  footing  of 
lovers,  he  must  reform  his  habits.  Though  Roger  was 
of  a  kind  and  considerate  disposition,  truthful,  honor- 
able, and  scrupulous  in  points  of  duty,  he  had  certain 


20  MEMORIES    OF 

habits  which  assumed  serious  proportions  in  the  mind  of 
a  lady  so  strict  in  notions  of  propriety.  He  had,  even  in 
Paris,  acquired  the  habit  of  smoking  immoderately.  In 
the  regiment  he  had  been  compelled,  by  evil  customs  then 
prevailing,  to  go  through  a  noviciate  in  the  matter  of 
imbibing  "  military  port ;  "  and  his  habits  had  followed 
him  to  Tichborne,  where  the  odor  of  pipes  haunted  the 
terrace-walks  throughout  his  visits ;  and — horror  of 
horrors — the  young  officer  had  been  seen  at  least  on  one 
occasion,  in  a  state  of  preternaturally  high  spirits,  only 
to  be  explained  by  his  having  lingered  in  the  dining- 
room  too  long  after  the  retirement  of  the  ladies.  Even 
worse,  he  was  accustomed  to  bring  in  his  portmanteau 
French  novels,  which  were  decidedly  objectionable, 
though  few  young  men — or,  at  least,  few  young  French- 
men— would  probably  regard  it  as  much  sin  to  read 
them.  So  little  did  the  young  man  appreciate  her 
objections  to  this  exciting  kind  of  literature  that  he  had 
actually  recommended  to  his  aunt  some  stories,  which 
no  amount  of  humor  and  cleverness  could  prevent  that 
pious  lady  regarding  as  debasing,  and  absolutely  im- 
moral. Now,  that  there  seemed  a  prospect  of  her 
nephew's  destiny  being  united  with  that  of  a  dear  and 
only  child,  it  was  natural  enough  that  the  mother's 
standard  of  perfection  in  a  son-in-law  should  rise  even 
above  a  reasonable  height.  But  Jacob  toiled  seven 
years  for  Rachel;  and  what  would  Roger  not  do  to 
please  the  mother  of  the  young  lady  whom  he  loved  so 
deeply  ?  All  sorts  of  pledges  were  given  ;  all  kinds  of 
good  resolutions  taken ;  and  manful  efforts  were  made  to 
attain  to  the  ideal  life  which  he  had  resolved  upon. 
But  among  the  distinguished  society  in  which  Roger,  in 
common  with  the  other  officers,  freely  mingled,  in  Dub- 
lin, Cahir,  Waterford,  and  Clonmel,  Lady  Doughty  had 
**  good-natured  friends,"  who  gave  terrible  accounts  of 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  21 

barrack  life,  and  the  dissipation  of  young  Carabineers. 
To  tell  the  truth,  such  idle  practical  jokes  as  attiring 
a  young  donkey  in  bedgown  and  nightcap,  and  tying 
him  down  in  the  bed  of  a  young  brother  officer,  were 
not  the  most  innocent  of  the  escapades  of  young  men 
who,  with  health  and  strength,  and  large  capacity  for 
work,  were  compelled,  to  a  great  extent,  to  lead  an  idle 
life.  Mess  dinners  could  not  be  avoided,  and  occasional 
deep  potations  were  only  to  be  escaped  by  the  most 
resolute  self-will.  How  Lady  Doughty  felt  under  all 
this  will  be  best  shown  by  the  following  extract  from  one 
of  her  letters,  among  that  voluminous  mass  of  Roger 
Tichborne's  correspondence,  which  may  be  said  to  have 
been  almost  miraculously  preserved  : — 

"  1850.     Tichborne  Park,  begun  29  Jan.,  finished  31st. 

"  My  dearest  Roger, — After  three  weeks  being  be- 
tween life  and  death,  it  has  pleased  God  to  restore  me  so 
far  that  I  have  this  day,  for  the  first  time,  been  in  the 
wheel-chair  to  the  drawing-room,  and  I  hasten  to  begin 
my  thanks  to  you  for  your  letters,  especially  that  private 
one,  though  it  may  yet  be  some  days  before  I  finish  all 
I  wish  to  say  to  you,  for  I  am  yet  very  weak,  and  my 
eyes  scarcely  allow  of  reading  or  writing.  .  .  .  Re- 
member, dear  Roger,  that  by  that  conversation  in  town 
you  gave  me  every  right  to  be  deeply  interested  in  your 
fate,  and,  therefore,  doubly  do  I  feel  grieved  when  I  see 
you  abusing  that  noblest  of  God's  gifts  to  man,  reason, 
by  diminishing  its  power.  ...  I  cannot  recall  to  my 
mind  the  subject  you  say  I  was  beginning  in  the  draw- 
ing-room when  interrupted ;  probably  it  might  have  had 
reference  to  the  confidence  which  you  say  you  do  not 
repent  having  placed  in  me.  No,  dear  Roger,  never  re- 
pent it  ;  be  fully  assured  that  I  never  shall  betray  that 
confidence.  You  are  young,  and  intercourse  with  life 
and  the  society  you  must  mix  with,  might  very  possibly 


22  MEMORIES    OF 

change  your  feelings  towards  one  now  dear  to  you,  or 
rather,  settle  them  into  the  affection  of  a  brother  towards 
a  sister ;  but,  whatever  may  be  the  case  hereafter,  my 
line  of  duty  is  marked  out,  and  ought  steadily  to  be  fol- 
lowed— that  is,  not  to  encourage  anything  that  could 
fetter  the  future  choice  of  either  party,  before  they  had 
fully  seen  others,  and  mixed  with  the  world,  and  with 
all  the  fond  care  of  a  mother,  endeavor,  while  she  is  yet 
so  young,  to  prevent  her  heart  and  mind  from  being 
occupied  by  ideas  not  suited  to  what  should  be  her 
present  occupations,  and  hereafter,  with  the  blessing  of 
God,  guard  her  against  the  dangers  she  may  be  liable  to 
be  ensnared  into  by  the  position  in  which  she  is  placed. 
.  .  .  You  have  been,  I  rejoice  to  hear,  raised  in  the 
opinion  of  all  with  whom  you  have  lately  had  to  trans- 
act business,  by  your  firmness  and  decision.  You  are  in 
an  honorable  profession,  which  gives  you  occupation. 
.  .  .  Resist  drink  or  a  rash  throwing  away  life,  or 
wasting  in  any  way  the  energies  of  a  naturally  strong, 
sensible  mind,  and  really  attached  heart.  Now,  write  to 
me  soon ;  tell  me  truly  if  I  have  tried  your  patience  by 
this  long  letter  which  I  venture  to  send,  for  it  is  when 
returning  to  life,  as  I  now  feel,  that  renewed  love  to  all 
dear  to  one  seems  to  take  possession  of  our  hearts,  so 
you  must  forgive  it  if  you  find  it  long.  Your  uncle  and 
cousin  send  their  kindest  love.  Adieu,  dearest  Roger, 
ever  be  assured  of  the  sincere  affection  and  real  attach- 
ment of  your  aunt,  Katherine  Doughty." 

In  replying  to  letters  of  this  kind,  the  young  man  pro- 
tested that  his  failings  had  been  exaggerated,  and  there 
is  a  trace  of  vexation  that  Lady  Doughty  should  have 
lent  an  ear  to  reports  of  his  manner  of  life  which  were 
colored  in  an  unfriendly  way  ;  but  there  was  no  abate- 
ment in  the  affectionate  terms  on  which  he  stood  with 
his  aunt  at  Tichborne. 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  23 

Matters,  however,  could  not  long  go  on  in  this  fashion. 
As  yet  Roger  Tichborne  had  never  spoken  of  his  love  to 
Miss  Doughty,  though  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  some 
tokens  had  revealed  that  secret.  Years  after  these 
events,  Miss  Doughty,  then  Lady  Radcliffe,  was  com- 
pelled, in  vindication  of  herself,  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
rights  of  others  so  cruelly  assailed,  to  stand  up  in  a 
crowded  court  of  justice  and  re-open  those  old  sorrows. 
She  was  then  asked  kindly  by  the  Judge,  whether  she 
did  not  at  that  time  know  that  her  cousin  loved  her,  and 
with  a  simple  frankness,  she  answered,  promptly,  "  My 
Lord,  I  hoped  he.  did."  But  love  must  find  expression  in 
something  more  than  hints  and  tokens,  or  even  hopes. 
So  at  last  came  the  inevitable  time.  It  was  Christmas 
Eve,  185 1,  that  Roger  joyfully  set  foot  in  Tichborne 
Park  once  more.  That  was  a  happy  meeting  in  all  but 
the  fact  that  Sir  Edward  Doughty  was  in  weak  health. 
Nothing  else  clouded  the  unspoken  happiness  of  the 
young  pair,  except,  perhaps,  the  fact  that  both  knew 
that  neither  Miss  Doughty's  father,  nor  the  father  and 
mother  of  Roger  Tichborne  as  yet  knew  anything  of 
their  growing  attachment.  But  young  people  are  hope- 
ful in  such  matters,  and  think  but  little  of  the  future. 
Meanwhile,  however.  Sir  Edward  had  begun  to  observe 
how  much  time  the  cousins  spent  together.  Miss 
Doughty  had  given  Roger  a  keepsake  volume  of  Father 
Faber's  hymns,  and  there  was  an  exchange  of  gifts. 
Suddenly  the  truth  flashed  across  the  mind  of  the  father, 
and  he  was  vexed  and  angry.  It  was  on  a  Sunday  morn- 
ing ;  the  two  cousins  had  been  walking  in  the  garden, 
enjoying  the  bright  winter  day,  and  they  were  sitting 
together  at  breakfast,  when  a  message  came  that  Sir 
Edward  desired  to  see  his  nephew  in  the  library. 

The  bolt  had  fallen.  Roger  did  not  come  back  to  the 
breakfast-table  ;  but  the  eyes  of  the  cousins  met  sorrow- 


24  MEMORIES     OF 

fully  in  the  chapel,  and  in  the  afternoon,  with  Lady 
Doughty's  permission,  they  saw  each  other  in  the  draw- 
ing-room, to  take  farewell.  For  Sir  Edward's  fiat  had 
gone  forth.  Marriage  between  first  cousins  was  for- 
bidden by  the  Church,  and  there  were  other  reasons  why 
he  was  resolute  that  this  engagement  should  be  broken 
off  before  it  grew  more  serious.  So  the  happy  holiday 
was  cut  short,  and  it  was  arranged  that  on  the  very  next 
morning  early  the  young  man  should  leave  the  house  for- 
ever. Thus  the  great  hope  of  Roger's  life  was  suddenly 
extinguished,  and  there  was  nothing  left  for  him  but  to 
sail  with  his  regiment  for  India,  and  endeavor,  if  he 
could,  to  forget  the  past.  Some  days  after  that,  at  his 
cousin's  request,  he  wrote  out  for  her  a  narrative  of  his 
sorrows  at  this  time,  in  which  he  said : — 

"What  I  felt  when  I  left  my  uncle,  it  is  difficult  forme 
to  explain.  I  was  like  thunderstruck.  I  came  back  to- 
my  room,  and  tried  to  pack  up  my  things,  but  was 
obliged  to  give  up  the  attempt,  as  my  mind  was  quite 
absent.  I  sank  on  a  chair,  and  remained  there,  my  head 
buried  between  my  two  knees,  for  more  than  half  an 
hour.  What  was  the  nature  of  my  thoughts,  my  dearest 
K.,  you  may  easily  imagine.  To  think  that  I  was 
obliged  to  leave  you  the  next  day,  not  to  see  you  again 
— not,  perhaps,  for  years,  if  ever  I  came  back  from- 
India.  The  idea  was  breaking  my  heart.  It  passed  on^ 
giving  me  no  relief,  until  about  two  o'clock,  when  my 
aunt  told  me  that  you  wished  to  see  me.  That  news 
gave  me  more  pleasure  than  I  could  express — so  much- 
so,  that  I  never  could  have  expected  it.  The  evening 
that  I  saw  you,  my  dear  K.,  about  five  o'clock,  you  can- 
not conceive  what  pleasure  it  gave  me.  I  saw  you  felt 
my  going  away,  so  I  determined  to  tell  you  everything 
I  felt  towards  you.  What  I  told  you  it  is  not  necessary 
to  repeat,  as  I  suppose  you  remember  it.     When  I  came 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  25 

away  from  the  drawing-room,  my  mind  was  so  much 
oppressed  that  it  was  impossible  to  think  of  going  to 
bed.  I  stopped  up  until  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  I 
do  not  think  it  necessary,  my  dearest  K.,  to  tire  you  with 
all  the  details  of  what  I  have  felt  for  you  during  these 
two  days  ;  suffice  it  to  say,  that  I  never  felt  more  acute 
pain,  especially  during  the  night,  when  I  could  not 
sleep.  I  promise  to  my  own  dearest  Kate,  on  my  word 
and  honor,  that  I  will  be  back  in  England,  if  she  is  not 
married,  or  engaged,  towards  the  end  of  the  autumn  of 
1854,  or  the  month  of  January,  1855.  If  she  is  so 
engaged,  I  shall  remain  in  India  for  ten  or  fifteen  years, 
and  shall  wish  for  her  happiness,  which  I  shall  be  too 
happy  to  promote." 

The  young  pair  had  not,  however,  given  up  hope  of 
some  change.  Though  Lady  Doughty  had  a  secret 
dread  of  her  nephew's  habits,  she  had  a  strong  regard  for 
him,  and  would  be  certain  to  plead  his  cause.  But,  in  a 
very  few  days,  circumstances  unexpectedly  favored  his 
suit.  Sir  Edward's  malady  grew  worse,  the  physicians 
despaired,  and  he  believed  himself  near  his  end.  At 
such  times  the  will  is  weaker,  and  he  had  probably 
observed  the  sorrow  which  his  determination  had  caused 
to  his  only  child.  Hence,  perhaps,  it  was  that  Roger  was 
sent  for,  hurriedly,  to  take  farewell  of  his  uncle.  As 
Roger  approached  the  sick  bed,  his  uncle  addressed  him 
in  these  words,  which  the  young  man  noted  down  imme- 
diately afterwards,  for  Miss  Doughty's  eyes: — 

"  I  know,  my  dear  Roger,  the  mutual  attachment 
which  exists  between  you  and  your  cousin.  If  you  were 
not  so  near  related,  I  should  not  object  at  all  to  a  mar- 
riage between  you  two,  but,  however,  wait  three  years ; 
then,  if  the  attachment  still  exists  between  you,  and  yoi! 
can  get  your  father's  consent    and  also  leave  from  the 


26  MEMORIES    OF 

Church,  it  will  be  the  will  of  God,  and  I  will  not  object 
to  it  any  longer." 

To  which  the  nephew  answered  : — 

"  Ever  since  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  you 
and  my  cousin,  I  have  always  tried  to  act  towards  you 
two  in  the  most  honorable  way  I  possibly  could.  The 
Church,  as  you  know,  grants  dispensations  on  these 
occasions.  Of  course,  if  you  approve  of  it,  I  will  get 
my  father's  consent,  and  also  leave  from  the  Church, 
and  do  it  in  an  honorable  way  in  the  eyes  of  God  and 
of  the  world." 

Days  passed,  and  Roger  sat  up  night  after  night  in  at- 
tendance on  his  uncle's  sick  bed.  It  was  during  those 
tedious  watchings  that  he  again  wrote,  at  Miss  Doughty's 
request,  a  narrative  of  his  feelings: — 

"  Tichborne  Park,  Feb.  4,  1852  (1:30  A.  M.) 

"  I  shall  go  on  (he  said)  with  my  confessions,  only  ask- 
ing for  some  indulgence  if  you  find  them  too  long  and 
too  tedious.  You  are,  my  dearest  K.,  the  only  one  for 
whom  I  have  formed  so  strong  and  sincere  an  attach- 
ment. I  never  could  have  believed,  a  few  years  ago,  I 
was  able  to  get  so  attached  to  another.  You  are  the 
only  young  person  who  has  shown  me  some  kindness, 
for  which  I  feel  very  thankful.  It  is,  in  some  respects, 
rather  a  painful  subject  for  me  to  have  to  acknowledge 
my  faults ;  but,  as  I  have  undertaken  the  task,  I  must 
write  all  I  have  done,  and  what  have  been  my  thoughts, 
for  the  last  five  weeks.  I  had  a  very  wrong  idea  when  I 
left  Ireland.  It  was  this — I  thought  that  you  had 
entirely  forgotten  me.  I  was,  nevertheless,  very  anxious 
to  come  to  Tichborne,  for  a  short  time,  to  take  a  last 
farewell  of  you,  my  uncle,  and  my  aunt.  My  mind  and 
heart  were  then  so  much  oppressed  by  these  thoughts, 
that  it  was  my  intention  not  to  come  back  from  India 
for  ten  or  fifteen  years.      I  loved  you,  my  dearest  K.,  as 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  27 

dearly  as  ever.  I  would  have  done  anything  in  this 
world  to  oblige  you,  and  give  you  more  of  that  happi- 
ness which  I  hoped  I  might  see  you  enjoy.  I  would 
have  given  my  life  for  your  happiness'  sake..  To  have 
seen  all  these  things,  I  repeat  again,  with  a  dry  eye  and 
an  unbroken  heart,  or  for  a  person  who  has  a  strong 
feeling  of  attachment  towards  another,  to  behold  it,  is 
almost  beyond  human  power.  These  feelings  will  arise 
when  I  shall  be  thousands  of  miles  from  you,  but  I  have 
taken  my  pains  and  sorrows,  and  your  happiness  in  this 
world,  and  said  a  prayer  that  you  might  bear  the  pains 
and  sorrows  of  this  world  with  courage  and  resignation, 
and,  by  these  means,  be  happy  in  the  next.  When  I 
came  here,  I  found  I  had  been  mistaken  in  the  opinion  I 
had  formed,  and  I  reproached  myself  bitterly,  for  ever 
having  such  an  idea.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  men- 
tion that  I  got  rid  of  these  bad  thoughts  in  a  few  min- 
utes. Things  went  on  happily  until  Sunday,  January  11, 
1852,  when  I  was  sent  for  by  my  uncle,  at  breakfast. 
What  took  place  between  us,  I  think  it  unnecessary  to 
repeat,  as  you  know  already.  I  was  obliged  to  leave  the 
next  morning,  by  the  first  train,  for  London.  I  never 
felt  before  so  deeply  in  my  life,  what  it  was  to  part  with 
the  only  person  I  ever  loved.  How  deeply  I  felt,  I  can- 
not express,  but  I  shall  try  to  explain  as  much  of  it  as  I 
-can  in  the  next  chapter. 

"  What  I  have  suffered  last  night  I  cannot  easily  ex- 
plain. You  do  not  know,  my  own  dearest  K.,  what  are 
my  feelings  towards  you.  You  cannot  conceive  how 
much  I  loved  you.  It  breaks  my  heart,  my  own  dearest 
K.,  to  think  how  long  I  shall  be  without  seeing  you.  I 
do  feel  that  more  than  I  can  tell  you.  You  have  the 
comfort  of  a  home,  and,  moreover,  at  some  time  or 
other,  some  person  to  whom  you  can  speak,  and  who 
will  comfort  you.     I   have   none.     I  am  thrown  on  the 


28  MEMORIES    OF 

world  quite  alone,  without  a  friend,  nothing ;  but,  how- 
ever, I  shall  try  and  take  courage,  and,  I  hope  that  when 
you  will  see  me  in  three  years,  you  will  find  a  change  for 
the  better.  I  shall  employ  these  three  years  to  reform 
my  conduct,  and  become  all  that  you  wish  to  see  me.  I 
shall  never,  my  own,  my  dearest  K.,  forget  the  few 
moments  I  have  spent  with  you,  but,  on  the  contraiy,  I 
shall  only  consider  them  as  the  happiest  of  my  life.  You 
cannot  imagine  how  much  pleasure  your  letter  has  given 
me.  It  proved  to  me,  far  beyond  any  possible  doubt, 
what  are  your  feelings  towards  me.  I  did  not,  it  is  true, 
require  that  proof  to  know  how  you  felt  for  me.  It  is 
for  that  reason  that  I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  that 
proof  of  confidence,  by  expressing  yourself  so  kindly 
and  openly  to  me.  You  may  rest  assured,  my  own 
dearest  K.,  that  nothing  in  this  world  will  prevent  me, 
except  death  in  actual  service,  from  coming  back  from 
India  at  the  time  I  have  named  to  you — the  latter  part 
of  the  autumn  of  1854,  or  the  beginning  of  1855.  It 
will  be  a  great  comfort  for  me,  my  own  dearest  K.,  when 
I  shall  be  in  India,  to  think  of  you.  It  will  be,  I  may 
say,  the  only  pleasure  I  shall  have  to  think  of,  the  first 
person  I  ever  loved.  You  may  rest  assured,  that  nothing 
in  the  world  will  make  me  change.  Moreover,  if  you 
wish  me  to  come  back  sooner,  only  write  to  me,  and  I 
shall  not  remain  five  minutes  in  the  army  more  than  I 
can  help.  I  shall  always  be  happy  to  comply  with  your 
wishes,  and  come  back  as  soon  as  possible.  Again  rest 
assured,  my  dearest  K.,  that,  if  in  any  situation  of  life 
I  can  be  of  help  or  service  to  you,  I  shall  only  be  too 
happy,  my  dearest  K.,  to  serve  and  oblige  you. 

"  Your  very  affectionate  cousin, 

"  R.  C.  TiCHBORNE." 

Roger  Tichborne  went  back  to  his  regiment  in  Ire- 
land, soon  after  that ;  but  the  Carabineers  were  finally 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  29 

removed  to  Canterbury,  and  in  the  summer  he  again  got 
leave  of  absence,  which  he  spent  with  his  aunt  and  cou- 
sin in  London,  and  finally  at  Tichborne.  This  was  a  joy- 
ful meeting,  but  the  happiness  of  the  young  pair  was 
tinged  with  melancholy  forebodings,  for  it  was  under- 
stood that  they  were  then  to  bid  good-bye  for  many 
a  day.  The  time  when  they  would  be  permitted  to  re- 
gard each  other  as  irrevocably  engaged,  was  yet  far  dis- 
tant. Nearly  three  years,  indeed,  were  still  to  elapse, 
and  the  hard  condition  was  that  each  should  be  regarded 
as  free  during  that  period,  and  that  they  should  not  even 
see  each  other.  Roger  begged  hard  to  be  allowed  to 
write,  but  even  that  was  forbidden,  and  he  honorably 
observed  the  parents'  wishes.  The  test  was,  perhaps, 
little  in  his  eyes  ;  but  would  Miss  Doughty,  in  all  that 
long  time  of  absence,  form  no  other  attachment  ?  or, 
would  not  her  parents  seek  to  escape  from  a  reluctant 
compromise,  by  even  encouraging  other  suitors?  There 
was  some  amount  of  bitterness  in  the  young  man's  heart 
when  he  thought  of  these  things,  but  he  had  a  scheme 
for  wearing  away  the  time,  and,  come  what  would,  he 
would  endeavor  to  be  hopeful. 

It  was  on  the  22nd  of  June,  1852,  that  the  young  peo- 
ple walked  together  for  the  last  time,  in  the  garden  of 
Tichborne  House,  where  Roger  had  spent  so  many 
checkered  days.  They  talked  of  the  future  hopefully, 
but  it  was  a  hard  task  to  keep  heart.  For  her  comfort, 
however,  he  told  her  a  secret.  Some  months  before  that 
time  he  had  made  a  vow,  and  written  out  and  signed  it, 
solemnly.     It  was  in  these  words: — 

"  I  make  on  this  day,  a  promise,  that  if  I  marry  my 
cousin,  Kate  Doughty,  this  year,  or  before  three  years 
are  over,  at  the  latest,  to  build  a  church  or  chapel  at 
Tichborne,  to  the  Holy  Virgin,  in  thanksgiving  for  the 


V 


30  MEMORIES    OF 

protection  which  she  has  showed  us,  in  praying  God  that 
our  wishes  might  be  fulfilled. 

"  R.  C.  TiCHBORNE." 

In  the  eyes  of  good  Catholics  such  a  solemn  promise 
was  a  pledge  of  future  happiness,  and,  thus,  on  the  22nd 
of  June,  the  two  were  parted,  henceforth  never  to  meet 
again  in  this  world. 

Roger  went  back  to  his  regiment,  and  indulged  his 
habitual  melancholy.  He  gave  up  all  parties  of  pleasure. 
To  his  great  regret,  the  order  of  the  Carabineers  to  go  to 
India  had  been  countermanded  ;  but  he  had  no  intention 
of  leading  the  dull  round  of  barrack  life  in  Canterbury. 
He  had  determined  to  go  abroad  for  a  year  and  a  half  or 
two  years ;  by  that  time  the  allotted  period  of  trial 
would  be  near  an  end.  It  has  been  said,  by  his  enemies, 
that  he  "  choose  to  go  on  a  wild  and  wandering  expedi- 
tion, the  motives  of  which  few  could  understand."  But, 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  understanding  the  motives  of 
Roger  Tichborne,  when  we  read  the  numerous  letters 
which  he  wrote  at  this  period.  He  had  determined  to 
leave  a  profession  which  offered  no  outlet  for  his  ener- 
gies. The  tame  round  of  the  cities  and  picture-galleries 
of  Europe, — the  regulation  programme  of  travel,  which, 
in  the  last  century,  used  to  be  known  as  "the  grand 
tour,"  had  no  charms  for  him.  Among  the  many  books 
which  he  read  at  this  time,  were  the  Indian  romances  of 
Chateaubriand,  "Rene,"  "  Attilla,"  and  "  Le  Dernier 
Abencerrage,"  wherein,  amidst  much  verbiage,  is  a  capti- 
vating story  of  a  young  Frenchman,  who,  in  past  times, 
went  away,  to  forget  his  troubles  by  visiting  the  Indian 
tribes  in  the  forests  of  Florida,  and  the  wild  prairies  of 
Louisiana  and  New  Mexico.  How  deeply  these  stories 
impressed  his  mind,  is  apparent  in  his  letters  to  Lady 
Doughty.  "  Happy  (he  says)  was  the  life  of  Ren6.  He 
knew  how  to  take  his  troubles  with  courage,  and  keep 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  31 

them  to  himself, — retired  from  all  his  friends,  to  be 
more  at  liberty  to  think  about  his  sorrows  and  misfor- 
tunes, and  buiy  them  in  himself.  I  admire  that  man  for 
his  courage — that  is,  the  courage  to  carry  those  sorrows 
to  the  grave  which  drove  him  into  solitude."  But  the 
prairies  of  Louisiana  have,  since  Rene's  time,  become  ->[ 
peopled,  and  the  traveler  may  now  look  in  vain  for  In-  j 
dians  in  the  wilds  of  Florida.  South  America  promised 
a  richer  harvest  of  savage  life  and  picturesque  scenery, 
and  his  thoughts  had  long  before  been  directed  to  that 
country.  Among  his  intimate  friends  and  schoolfellows  at 
Stonyhurst,  was  Mr.  Edward  Waterton,  whose  father,  the 
celebrated  naturalist,  had  given  to  the  college  a  collection 
of  stuffed  foreign  birds,  and  other  preserved  animals  ;  and, 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  famous  narratives  of  ad- 
venture in  South  America,  of  that  distinguished  traveler, 
were  among  the  books  which  Roger  and  other  college 
friends  read  at  that  period.  Perhaps,  no  book  of  travel 
more  fascinating  for  youthful  readers  was  ever  written 
than  Mr.  Waterton's  "  Wanderings,"  in  which  he  teaches 
how  to  sleep  in  hammocks,  in  the  luxuriant  Peruvian 
forests,  and  to  snare  the  hideous  caiman  in  the  mighty 
rivers  of  Brazil.  How  deeply  the  splendors  of  the  natu- 
ral history  collection  of  Stonyhurst  had  impressed  the 
mind  of  the  boy,  is  evidenced  in  the  fact  that  Roger 
took  delight  at  school  in  practicing  the  art  of  preserving 
birds  and  other  animals  ;  while,  long  afterwards,  in  hum- 
ble emulation  of  the  great  naturalist's  achievement,  he 
gathered  and  sent  home,  when  on  his  travels,  many  a 
specimen  of  birds  of  splendid  plumage.  South  America, 
in  short,  had  long  been  the  subject  of  his  dreams  ;  and 
now,  in  traveling  in  that  vast  continent,  he  would  tiy  to 
find  occupation  for  the  mind,  and  get  through  the  long 
time  of  waiting,  which  he  had  undertaken  to  bear 
patiently.      His  scheme  was  to  spend  a  twelvemonth  in 


32  MEMORIES    OF 

Chili,  Guayaquil,  and  Peru,  seeing,  not  only  wild  scenes, 
but  famous  cities  ;  thence  to  visit  Mexico,  and  so,  byway 
of  the  United  States,  find  his  way  back  to  England. 

Having  taken  this  resolution,  he  set  about  putting  his 
affairs  in  order,  for  Roger  Tichborne,  though  endowed 
with  strong  passions,  was  a  man  of  business-like  habits, 
and  by  no  means  prone  to  neglect  his  worldly  interests. 
When  he  came  of  age,  he  had  himself  sketched  out  a 
new  settlement  of  the  great  Tichborne  and  Doughty 
estates,  and  his  resolute  will  resulted  in  his  plans  being 
adopted.  There  had  been  a  desire  to  sell  the  house  and 
grounds  of  Upton,  in  Dorsetshire  ;  but  for  this,  his  con- 
sent, as  the  ultimate  heir,  was  necessary,  and  he  insisted 
that  the  property  should  remain  in  the  family.  Upton 
was  the  early  home  of  Miss  Doughty ;  he  knew  of  her 
affection  for  the  place,  and  he  had  conceived  a  plan  for 
making  it  her  home  again,  whenever  he  should  have 
power  to  dispose  of  it.  In  this  spirit  he  made  his  will, 
— saying,  however,  as  he  remarked  in  one  of  his  letters, 
"  nothing  about  the  church  or  chapel  at  Tichborne," 
which,  he  said,  he  would  only  build  under  the  conditions 
mentioned  in  the  paper  which  he  had  left  in  the  hands 
of  his  dearest  and  most  trusted  friend,  Mr.  Gosford,  the 
steward  of  the  family  estates.  In  truth,  months  before 
the  day  when  he  gave  Miss  Doughty  that  copy  of  "  The 
Vow,"  in  the  garden  at  Tichborne,  he  had  solemnly 
signed  and  sealed  up  this  compact  with  his  own  con- 
science, and  deposited  it,  with  other  precious  mementos 
of  that  time,  in  his  friend's  safe-keeping.  Parting  with 
friends  in  England  cost  him,  perhaps,  but  little  sorrow, 
for  his  mind  was  full  of  projects  to  be  carried  into  effect 
on  his  return.  He  aspired  to  the  character  of  a  traveler, 
and  to  be  qualified  for  membership  at  the  Travelers' 
Club,  where,  in  one  of  his  letters  while  abroad,  he  re- 
quests that  his  name  may  be  inscribed  as  a  candidate. 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  33 

To  his  cousins,  aunts,  and  uncles,  at  Knoyle,  at  Brook- 
wood,  and  at  Towneley,  he  promised  to  write  frequent 
letters.  He  had  an  old  habit  of  keeping  diaries,  and  he 
promised  to  send  extracts  ;  and,  after  all,  the  time  would 
not  be  long. 

But,  there  was  one  house  in  which  Roger  Tichborne 
shrank  from  saying  farewell.  He  had  made  a  solemn 
resolution  that  he  would  go  to  Tichborne  no  more 
while  matters  remained  thus,  and  his  pride  was  wounded 
by  what  appeared  to  him  to  be  a  want  of  confidence  in 
his  character,  on  the  part  of  Lady  Doughty.  In  his  bit- 
terness, he  suspected  her  sometimes  of  merely  playing 
with  his  feelings,  and,  with  secretly  determining  to  bring 
about  another  match  for  her  daughter.  In  a  worldly- 
point  of  view,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  union  more  de- 
sirable than  that  of  the  two  cousins.  But,  it  is  clear, 
that  the  mother  trembled  for  the  future  of  her  child. 
Hence,  she  still  gave  ready  ear  to  tales  of  the  wild  life 
of  the  regiment,  and  hinted  them  in  her  letters  to  her 
nephew  in  a  way  that  made  him  angry,  but  not  vindic- 
tive. The  correspondence  between  aunt  and  nephew, 
continued  to  the  last,  and,  throughout  his  long  travels, 
affectionate  and  tender ;  but  her  conduct  in  one  point, 
cut  him  to  the  quick.  "  I  will  not  go  to  Tichborne,"  he  y 
thought,  "  to  make  a  show  of  my  misery  to  one  who  >^ 
plays  upon  me  thus."  The  idea  of  a  formal  parting  was 
hateful.  He  was  asked  kindly  to  go  and  see  his  uncle, 
Sir  Edward,  before  starting;  but  his  will  was  inflexible, 
and  he  went  away,  as  he  had  all  along  said  that  he  would, 
resolved,  like  Rene,  for  awhile  at  least,  "  to  have  the  ^ 
courage  to  bury  his  sorrows  within  himself."  Yet,  how  ' 
deeply  settled  was  the  passion  that  had  grown  up  so  im- 
perceptibly in  those  pleasant  holidays  at  Tichborne,  may 
be  traced,  again  and  again,  in  his  letters  from  South 
America.  Except  from  the  mother,  he  is  always  craving 
11.-3 


\ 


34  MEMORIES    OF 

for  news  of  the  Tichborne  circle.  "  Is  Miss  Doughty- 
married?"  he  asks.  "  Has  not  one  of  those  Scotch  lords^ 
for  which  my  aunt  has  so  much  affection,  been  accepted? 
I  fully  expect  to  see  in  some  newspaper  that  is  sent  me^ 
the  news  of  my  cousin's  wedding."  But  these  were  but 
the  bitter  outpourings  of  his  wounded  sensitiveness  ; 
they  did  not  deceive  his  faithful  friend  Gosford,  who  ob- 
served, with  a  smile,  how  the  wanderer  always  harped 
upon  the  old  theme. 

Roger  Tichborne  went  away  in  February,  and  spent 
nearly  three  weeks  in  Paris,  with  his  father  and  mother, 
and  old  friends  of  his  early  days.  Lady  Tichborne  was 
not  unnaturally  adverse  to  this  plan  of  traveling  ;  and 
she  opposed  it  both  by  her  own  upbraidings,  and  by  the 
persuasion  of  spiritual  advisers,  who  had  influence  over 
her  son.  Chief  of  these  was  Father  Lefevre,  for  whom 
Roger  had  always  felt  so  strong  an  affection.  But  it  was 
of  no  avail.  Roger's  character  was  of  that  class  which 
is  not  easily  moved  from  a  resolution  once  taken,  and 
the  days  when  Lady  Tichborne  had  dreamed  of  kidnap- 
ping him  at  Stonyhurst  were  long  gone  by.  He  had 
chosen  to  sail  in  a  French  vessel  from  Havre — La 
Pauline — no  doubt  a  gratifying  token,  in  the  eyes  of  his 
mother,  that  he  had  not,  after  all,  become  heart  and  soul 
an  Englishman.  The  fact  was,  that  although  the  young 
man's  diligent  studies  in  England  had  resulted  in  a  con- 
siderable mastery  of  the  power  of  writing  in  English^ 
French  was  still  his  mother  tongue.  In  writing,  he 
sometimes  translated  French  idioms  with  a  literalness 
that  was  amusing  to  his  friends,  and  not  seldom,  his 
spelling  of  English  words  was  incorrect ;  besides  which 
he  was  often  at  a  loss  to  find  language  to  express  his 
thoughts  with  the  readiness  which  is  necessary  in  con- 
versation. His  voyage  to  Valparaiso  was  to  last  four 
months,  and  thence  he  was  going  on  in  the  same  vessel 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  '     35 

to  Peru.  It  was,  doubtless,  for  these  reasons  that, 
though  he  took  an  English  servant  with  him,  he  preferred 
a  French  ship,  with  a  French  captain  and  French  sea- 
men. Thus,  it  was,  that  on  the  ist  of  March,  1853,  he 
sailed  away  from  Europe,  never  to  return. 

The  incidents  of  Roger  Tichborne's  travels  need  not 
occupy  us  long.  The  Pauline  started  with  bad  weather," 
which  detained  her  in  the  Channel,  and  compelled  her  to 
put  in  at  Falmouth,  but,  after  that,  she  made  a  prosper- 
ous voyage  round  Cape  Horn  to  Valparaiso,  where  she 
arrived  on  the  19th  of  June.  As  the  vessel  was  to  re- 
main there  a  month,  Mr.  Tichborne,  after  spending  a 
week  in  Valparaiso,  started,  with  his  servant,  John 
Moore,  to  see  Santiago,  the  capital  of  Chili,  at  about 
ninety  miles  inland.  Thence  he  returned  and  sailed  for 
Peru,  where  he  embarked  for  places  in  the  north.  At 
Santiago  his  servant  had  been  taken  ill,  and,  though  re- 
covering, ^Vas  unfitted  to  travel.  His  master,  thereupon, 
furnished  him  with  funds  to  set  up  a  store,  and  took  an- 
other servant,  with  whom  he  underwent  many  adven- 
tures. At  Lima,  he  visited  and  sent  home  descriptions 
of  the  magnificent  churches,  bought  paintings  and  curi- 
osities, which  he  dispatched  to  England,  carefully 
packed,  and  saw  bull  fights  and  other  sights  characteris-     a  L,'.'J>^ 

tic  of  the  manners  of  the  Spanish  inhabitants.     On  the    J  ""  ' 

great  rivers  he  beheld,  as  he  said,  "  for  the  first  time,  ||^w«  ^'^'  , 
tropical  vegetation  in  all  its  beauty."  Having  stored  a  -^^v^^^"*  * 
little  yacht  with  provisions,  he  started,  with  his  servant, 
on  a  voyage  of  about  three  hundred  miles  up  the  river 
Guayaquil,  and  was  for  some  days  under  the  Line ;  he 
made  similar  journeys  in  a  canoe,  with  his  servant  and  two 
Indians,  still  bent  on  his  favorite  pursuit  of  collecting  and 
preserving  rare  birds  of  gorgeous  plumage.  Besides 
these  feats  of  activity,  he  visited  and  explored  silver  and 
copper  mines.     Neither  the  fatigue  of  traveling,  nor  the 


>3f 


S/ 


MEMORIES    OF 


'^.tropical  heats  abated  his  ardor.      Yet,  all  this  while  he 
*'^_  Kvas  a  diligent  correspondent,  and  every  mail  brought 
.^  Jabundant  narratives  of  his  adventures.     Scores  of  letters 
.^l^  written  at  this  time  to  his  father  and  mother,  to  Lady 
;   t  '\  >iI^oughty,    Mr.   Gosford,    Mrs.    Greenwood,    and    other 
!|r   K  t  friends  and  relatives  still  exist,  evincing  not  only  his  un- 
'%'   ,  ;'  .tiring  industry  and  his  intelligent  interest  in  the  scenes 
"^  and  objects  passing  before  him,  but  placing  beyond  all 
\^.     i.    "V  doubt  the  fact  that  his  sympathies  with  home,  and,  above 
^     ^     ^  all,  his  love  for  his  cousin,  had  undergone  no  change, 
,  t  had,  indeed,  only  grown  deeper  from  long  absence. 
V      Sad  news  had  reached  him  on  his  wanderings.     There 
U^Avas  sorrow  once  more  at  Tichborne.      Scarcely  had  the 
^  Paulme   left   sight    of    our    shores,    when    Sir    Edward 
J"   Doughty's   long-lingering  illness   terminated    in    death, 
^     and  Roger's  father  and  mother,  now  Sir  James  and  Lady 
"*  Tichborne,  were  coming  over  from  Paris  to  take  up  their 

home  there  with  their  little  boy  Alfred.     By  and  by  the 
wanderer  began  to  retrace  his  steps,  came  back  to  Val- 
paraiso, and,  with  his  last  new  servant,    Jules  Berraut, 
rode  thence  in  one  night  ninety  miles  to  Santiago  again. 
Ao"ain  he  started  with   muleteers  and  servants,  on  the 
4  ^w'lj,  difficult  and  perilous  journey  over  the  lofty  Cordilleras, 
f"       I,  and  thence  across  the  Pampas  to  Buenos  Ayres,  Monte 
-jjI   '^'  ■«'>  Video,  and  Rio  de  Janeiro. 

In  April,  1854,  there  happened  to  be  lying  in  the  har- 
bor of  Rio  a  vessel  which  hailed  from  Liverpool,  and 
bore  the  name  of  the  Bella.  She  was  about  to  sail  for 
Kingston,  Jamaica,  on  her  way  to  New  York,  and  it  was 
to^Kingston  that  Roger  had  directed  his  letters  and  re- 
mittances to  be  forwarded,  that  being  a  convenient  rest- 
ing place  on  his  journey  to  Mexico,  where  he  intended 
to  spend  a  few  months.  The  Bella  was  a  full-rigged 
ship,  of  nearly  500  tons  burden,  clipper-built,  and  almost 
new.     Aboard  this  ship,  then  taking  in  her  cargo  of 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  37 

coffee  and  logwood,  came,  one  April  morning,  a  young 
English  gentleman,  in  half-nautical  costume,  pea-jacket, 
round  hat,  and  wide  trowsers.  His  skin  was  reddened 
and  browned  by  exposure  to  the  sun,  and  his  whole  ap- 
pearance was  that  of  a  man  who  had  been  much  knocked 
about  by  travel  in  uncivilized  lands.  The  stranger  in- 
troduced himself  as  Mr.  Tichborne.  He  wanted  a  passage 
to  Kingston,  but  Avas  in  a  little  difficulty.  Traveling 
with  servants,  hiring  yachts  and  canoes,  buying  paint- 
ings, curiosities,  and  natural  history  specimens,  had 
proved  more  expensive  than  he  expected.  In  short,  his 
funds  were  exhausted  ;  nor  could  his  purse  be  replen- 
ished until  he  got  to  Kingston,  where  letters  from  his 
bankers,  Messrs.  Glyn  &  Co.,  were  expected  to  be  in 
waiting  for  him.  It  is  probable,  that  in  much  beating 
about  the  globe.  Captain  Burkett  had  heard  stories  of 
this  kind  before.  Any  way,  he  knew  that  the  stranger's 
tale  was  not  necessarily  true  because  somebody  told  it. 
Therefore,  putting  his  visitor  off  for  the  present  with 
kind  words,  he  took  a  leaf  from  the  book  of  Captain 
Cuttle,  and  consulted  another  sea-captain,  Mr.  Gates, 
master  of  the  ship  JoJin  Bibby.  Gates  was  the  bosom 
friend  of  Burkett  ;  their  ships  belonged  to  the  same 
owners.  When  confusion,  arising  from  loading  or  un- 
loading, reigned  in  the  one  ship,  the  two  captains  slept 
aboard  the  other  vessel,  and  thus,  at  this  time,  the  Bella 
was  Captain  Oates's  home.  Gates  being  consulted,  ex- 
hibited his  shrewdness.  "  Let  us,"  he  said,  "  invite  this 
young  Englishman  to  sup  aboard  ;  from  his  conversation 
we  shall  be  able  to  judge  whether  he  is  a  gentleman,  and 
likely  to  be  the  person  he  pretends  to  be."  So  Roger, 
not  suspecting  this  little  manoeuvre,  received  an  invita- 
tion, supped  with  the  worthy  captains,  and  was  inter- 
viewed and  inspected,  and  made  friends  with  t'.icm  at 
once.     But   Burkett  did  not  only  undertake  to  convey 


38  MEMORIES    OF 

his  visitor  to   Kingston,  in  full  reliance  on  his  promises; 
he  determined  to  help  him  in  a  matter  of  some  delicacy, 
and  not   a  little  danger ;  for  when   the  vessel  was  near 
sailing  Mr.  Tichborne  was  found  to  be  without  the  indis- 
pensible  requisite  of  a  passport.     Great  excitement  then 
prevailed  in  Brazil  on  the  subject   of  runaway   slaves. 
Black  slaves  had  escaped  by  making  themselves  stow- 
aways ;  "half-caste"  people,  relying  on  their  compara- 
tive  fairness  of  skin,  had  openly  taken  passage  as  sea- 
men, or  even  passengers,  and  thus  got  away  from  a  hate- 
ful life  of  bondage.       Hence,  the  peremptory  regulation 
that  no  captain  should  sail  with  a  stranger  aboard,  with- 
out an  official  license.      Under  these    circumstances   a 
plan  was  devised  by  the  captain   and  his  bosom  friend. 
''     When  the  Government  officers  came  aboard,    no    Mr. 
S    Tichborne  or  other  stranger  was  visible.      As  the  vessel, 
ft'    fit-         loosed  from  her  moorings,  was  slowly  drifting  down  the 
f\f  ""  harbor  in  early  morning,  the  officers  sat  at  a  little  table 

on  deck,  smoked  cigars,  and  drank  coffee  with  the  two 
captains.  At  length  the  moment  came  to  call  their  boat 
and  take  farewell,  wishing  the  good  ship  Be//a  and  her 
valuable  freight  a  pleasant  voyage.  Scarcely  had  they 
and  Captain  Oates  departed,  when  the  table  was  re- 
moved ;  and  just  beneath  where  the  officers  had  been 
sitting,  a  circular  plug  closing  the  entrance  to  what  is 
known  as  the  "  lazarette"  was  lifted,  and  out  came  Mr. 
Tichborne,  laughing  at  the  success  of  their  harmless 
device.  Before  noon  the  Be//a  had  passed  through  the 
narrow  outlet  from  the  grand  harbor  of  Rio  into  the 
open  Atlantic,  and,  spreading  all  her  sails,  was  soon  01 
her  voyage  northward. 

That  was  on  the  20th  day  of  April,  1854,  but  never,  from 
that  day,  did  the  good  ship  Be//a  furl  sail  or  cast  an  an- 
chor in  any  port.  Only  six  days  after  she  had  left  the 
port  of  Rio,  a  vessel,  traversing  her  path,  found  tokens 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  39 

of  a  wreck — straw  bedding,  such  as  men  lay  on  deck  in 
hot  latitudes,  a  water-cask,  a  chest  of  drawers,  and  / 
among  other  things  a  long  boat  floating  bottom  upwards, 
and  bearing  on  her  stern  the  ominous  words  "  Bellas 
Liverpool."  These  were  brought  into  Rio,  and  forth- 
with the  Brazilian  authorities  caused  steam  vessels  to  go 
out  and  scour  the  seas  in  quest  of  survivors  ;  but  none 
were  seen.  That  the  Bella  had  foundered  there  was  lit- 
tle room  to  doubt  ;  though  the  articles  found  were 
chiefly  such  as  would  have  been  on  her  deck.  Even  the 
items  of  cabin  furniture  were  known  to  have  been  placed 
on  deck  to  make  way  for  merchandise,  with  which  she 
was  rather  heavily  laden.  The  night  before  these  arti- 
cles were  found  had  been  gusty,  but  there  had  been 
nothing  like  a  storm.  When  time  went  by  and  brought 
no  tidings.  Captain  Oates  and  other  practical  seamen 
came  to  the  mournful  conclusion  that  she  had  been 
caught  in  a  squall ;  that  her  cargo  of  coffee  had  shifted, 
as  it  is  called,  and  that  hence,  unable  to  right  herself,  the 
Bella  had  gone  down  in  deep  water,  giving  but  little 
warning  to  those  who  were  unhappily  aboard. 

In  a  few  months  this  sorrowful  news  was  brought  to  4^ 
Tichborne,  where  there  was  once  more  great  mourning. 
One  by  one  the  heirs  of  the  old  House  were  disappear- 
ing ;  and  now  it  seemed  that  all  the  hopes  of  the  family 
must  be  centred  in  the  young  Alfred,  then  a  boy  of  fif- 
teen. So,  at  least,  felt  Sir  James  Tichborne.  He  had 
inquiries  made  in  America  and  elsewhere.  For  a  time 
there  was  a  faint  hope  that  some  aboard  the  Bella  had 
escaped,  and  had,  perhaps,  been  rescued  by  some  vessel. 
But  months  went  by  and  still  there  was  no  sign.  The 
letters  of  news  that  poor  Roger  had  so  anxiously  asked 
to  be  directed  to  him  at  the  Post  Office,  Kingston, 
Jamaica,  remained  there  till  the  paper  grew  faded.  The 
bankers'  bill,    which   was   wanted    to    pay  the    passage 


\ 


40  MEMORIES    OF 

I  money,  lay  at  the  agents',  but  neither  Captain  Burkett 
\  nor  his  passenger  came  to  claim  it.  Weeks  and  months 
rolled  on ;  the  annual  allowance  of  one  thousand  a  year^ 
which  was  Mr.  Tichborne's  by  right,  was  paid  into  Glyn 
and  Co.'s  bank  to  his  account ;  but  no  draft  under 
Roger  Tichborne's  hand  was  ever  more  presented  at 
their  counters.  The  diligent  correspondent  suddenly 
ceased  to  correspond.  Down  to  the  very  time  of  his. 
embarkation  at  Rio  Roger  had  kept  friends  in  England 
informed  of  all  his  movements,  and  every  post  had 
brought  with  it  letters  giving  and  asking  news.  But 
now,  for  the  first  time,  the  post  was  silent.  More  months 
elapsed,  and  the  agony  of  suspense  found  no  relief  save 
in  the  growing  conviction  that  all  hope  was  idle.  The 
vessel  had  gone  down,  that  was  clear,  and  with  her  all 
on  board  had  perished.  If  not,  why  that  dread  silence  ?' 
The  captain  and  some  of  the  crew  had  wives  and  chil- 
dren ;  they  had  hitherto  been  good  husbands,  kind 
fathers.  Had  they  suddenly  lost  all  interest  in  those 
who  were  dear  to  them  ?  There  was  probably  not  a  man 
aboard  so  poor  in  friends  that  some  English  household 
was  not  grieving  for  his  sake.  But  it  was  everywhere 
the  same — no  tidings  for  the  widow,  the  orphan,  or  the 
friends.  At  Lloyd's  the  unfortunate  vessel  was  finally 
written  down  upon  the  ''  Loss  Book  " — the  insurance 
was  paid  to  the  Liverpool  owners,  and  in  time  the  Bella 
faded  away  into  the  great  shadowy  fleet  of  ships  that 
have  put  forth  upon  the  wide  ocean  never  to  come  home 
\  again. 

Years  past,  and  Sir  James  and  his  wife  led  a  secluded 
life  in  the  house  at  Tichborne.  Few  strangers  or  even 
relatives  visited  them.  Lady  Tichborne's  antipathy  to 
the  family  of  her  husband,  and  her  hatred  of  all  things 
English,  had  long  estranged  her  from  the  family  of  Sir 
James,  and    her   singular    temper   rendered   visiting  at. 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  41 

Tichborne  by  no  means  agreeable.  The  disconsolate 
mother  lived  now  only  in  the  thought  of  her  lost  son. 
Day  after  day  and  year  after  year  the  fixed  idea  pos- 
sessed her  that  he  was  still  living,  wandering  somewhere, 
unwilling  to  come  back — for  what  reason  she  knew  not, 
nor  did  she  care  to  inquire.  It  was  in  vain  that  Sir 
James  told  her  that  sorrow  was  idle,  and  all  hope  at  an 
end. 

Of  what  avail  to  reason  ?     If  Roger  Tichborne   had 
really  chosen  the  moment  when  the  Bella  disappeared        -/         Y^- 
to  disappear  also,  surely  never  did  hoax   so  purposeless    '        /L^^^^T^ 
prove   more   cruel  in  its  consequences.     The  key  to  all  ^       ,^^,_---^ 
this  was  the  impulsive,  self-willed,  but  essentially  weak-"*-  o^*-.- 

and  visionary  character  of  the  Lady  of  Tichborne,  nour-  ''^^ ^  -^^  e*.-^ 
ished  as  it  was  now  in  all  its  failings,  by  the  sorrows  she 
had  endured.     Proofs  which  satisfied  underwriters  and 
Courts    of  Probate,    were  to  this  poor  lady  miserable 
evidences  as  against  her  own  ardent  wishes.     She  was, 
with  all  her  failings,  a  religious  woman,  and  she  had  been 
bred  in  a  faith  which  has  not  yet  come  to  regard  the 
miraculous  interposition   of  saints   and    angels   as   only 
things  of  the  remote  past.     To  her,  the  coming  back  of 
her  son  was  no  impossibility,  but  rather  a  thing  which 
prayer  and  earnest  watching  would,  in  the  end,  assuredly 
bring  to  pass.      Certain  it  is  that  the  mother  kept  lamps   % 
alight  in  the  hall  at  Tichborne,  from  dusk  till  daybreak  , ' 
often  going  herself,  when  there  was  no  moon,  and  stars 
were  dimmed,  into  the  grounds  about  the  house,  holding 
a  lantern  in  her  feeble  hands  to  light  the  way,  lest  her 
poor,  lost  son — who  to  those  who  wanted  the  eyes  of 
faith,  seemed  to  be  surely  lying  under  the  Atlantic  waves 
— should,   coming  back  after  long  years,  miss  his  way,     i. — 
even  in  those  familiar  paths.  * 

A  mood  of  this  kind  is  not  unlikely  to  beget  impos- 
ture.    Long  before   this,  the  fact  that  Lady  Tichborne 


42  MEMORIES    OF 

hoped  against  faith,  and  refused  to  believe  any  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  the  view  that  her  eldest  son  was 
drowned,  was  well  known  in  the  county  of  Hampshire, 
and  it  has  been  related,  how  one  day  a  tramp  in  the 
dress  of  a  sailor  found  his  way  to  Tichborne,  and  having 
poured  into  the  willing  ears  of  the  poor  mother  a  wild 
story  of  some  of  the  survivors  of  the  Bella  being  picked 
up  off  the  cost  of  Brazil,  and  carried  to  Melbourne,  was 
forthwith  regaled  and  rewarded.  There  is  a  freemasonry 
among  tramps  and  beggars  which  sufficiently  explains 
the  fact  that  after  that  the  appearance  of  a  ragged  sailor 
in  Tichborne  Park  became  a  common  occurrence.  Sailors 
with  one  leg,  and  sailors  with  one  arm,  loud-voiced, 
blustering  seamen,  and  seamen  whose  troubles  had  sub- 
dued their  tones  to  a  plaintive  key,  all  found  their  way 
to  the  back  door  of  the  great  house.  Every  one  of  them 
had  heard  something  about  the  Bella  s  crew  being  picked 
up;  and  could  tell  more  on  that  subject  than  all  the 
owners,  or  underwriters,  or  shipping  registers  in  the 
world.  And  poor  Lady  Tichborne  believed,  as  is  evi- 
denced by  a  letter  of  hers,  written  in  1857,  only  three 
years  after  the  shipwreck,  to  a  gentleman  in  Melbourne, 
•^y  imploring  him  to  make  inquiries  for  her  son  in  that  part 

•  J  of  the  world.      Sir  James,  however,  though  no  less  sor- 

y^  rowful,  had  no  faith  ;  and  he  made  short  work  of  tramp- 

i  -^       '   ing  sailors  who  came  to  impose  on  the  poor  lady  with 
N  .J.         their  unsubstantial  legends. 

J  T  But  Sir  James,  unhappily,  died  in  1862.     Shortly  be- 

^,  nJI  fore  this  event  his  only  surviving  son,  Alfred,  had  mar- 

ried Theresa,  a  daughter  of  the  eleventh  Lord  Arundel 
of  Wardour.  This  fact,  however,  did  not  prevent  the 
mother,  in  her  crazy  moods,  taking  a  step  manifestly 
calculated  to  induce  some  imposter  to  come  forward  and 
claim  to  be  the  rightful  heir.  This  step  was  the  inser- 
tion of  an  advertisement  in  the  Times,  offering  a  reward 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  43 

for  the  discovery  of  her  eldest  son,  and  giving  a  number 
of  particulars  with  regard  to  his  birth,  parentage,  age, 
date  and  place  of  shipwreck,  and  name  of  vessel,  and 
other  matters.  More  than  that,  she  incorporated  in  her 
advertisement  the  vague  stories  of  the  tramping  sailors, 
about  his  having  been  picked  up  and  carried  to  Mel- 
bourne ;  and  this  mischievous  advertisement  was  pub- 
lished in  various  languages,  and,  doubtless,  copied  in  the 
South  American  and  Australian  newspapers— the  facts 
being  of  a  romantic  character,  and  being  associated  with 
those  parts  of  the  globe. 

Still  time  rolled  on,  and  no  Roger  Tichborne,  real  or  fic- 
titious, made  his  appearance.  One  day  the  Dowager  hap- 
pened to  see  in  a  newspaper  a  mention  of  the  fact  that  v 
there  was  in  Sydney  a  man  named  Cubitt,  who  kept  what  I 
he  called  '*  a  Missing  Friend's  Office."  To  Cubitt,  accord-/ 
ingly,  she  wrote  a  long  rambling  letter,  in  which,  among 
other  tokens  of  her  state  of  mind,  she  gave  a  grossly  incor- 
rect account  of  her  son's  appearance,  and  even  of  his  age  ; 
but  Cubitt  was  to  insert  her  long  advertisement  in  the  Aus- 
tralian papers,  and  he  was  promised  a  handsome  reward. 
Cubitt,  in  reply,  amused  the  poor  lady  with  vague  re- 
ports of  her  son  being  found  in  the  capacity  of  a  private 
soldier,  in  New  Zealand ;  and,  as  there  was  war  there  at 
that  time,  the  poor  Dowager  wrote  back,  in  an  agony  of 
terror,  to  entreat  that  he  might  be  bought  out  of  the 
regiment.  Mr,  Cubitt  could  not  fail  to  perceive  the  singu- 
lar person  he  had  to  deal  with  ;  and  his  letters  from  that 
time  were  largely  occupied  with  requests  for  money,  for 
services  which  have  been  stigmatized  by  a  high  authority 
as  almost  entirely  imaginary. 

At  last  came  more  definite  information.  A  Mr.  Gibbes, 
an  attorney  at  the  little  town  of  Wagga-Wagga,  two 
hundred  miles  inland  from  Sydney,  had,  he  said,  "  spot- 
ted "   the   real  Roger  Tichborne,  living  "  in  a  humble 


44  MEMORIES    OF 

station  of  life,"  and  under  an  assumed  name.  Again 
money  was  wanted.  Then  Gibbes,  apparently  deter- 
mined to  steal  a  march  on  Cubitt,  wrote  direct  to  the 
credulous  old  lady,  and  there  was  much  correspondence 
between  them.  At  first  there  were  some  little  difficul- 
ties. The  man  who,  after  a  certain  amount  of  coyness, 
had  pleaded  guilty  to  being  the  long-lost  heir,  still  held 
aloof  in  a  strange  way,  concealed  his  present  name  and 
occupation,  and  instead  of  going  home  at  once,  preferred 
to  bargain  for  his  return  through  the  medium  of  an  at- 
torney and  the  keeper  of  a  missing  friends'  office.  All 
this,  however,  did  not  shake  the  faith  of  Lady  Tichborne. 
Then  he  gave  accounts  of  himself,  which  did  not  in  the 
least  tally  with  the  facts  of  Roger's  life.  He  said  he 
was  born  in  Dorsetshire,  whereas  Roger  was  born  in 
Paris ;  he  accounted  for  being  an  illiterate  man  by  say- 
ing that  he  had  suffered  greatly  in  childhood  from  St. 
Vitus's  Dance,  which  had  interfered  with  his  studies^ 
"  My  son,"  says  Lady  Tichborne,  in  reply,  "  never  had 
St.  Vitus's  Dance."  When  asked  if  he  had  not  been  in 
the  army,  he  replied,  "  Yes,"  but  that  he  did  not  know 
much  about  it,  because  he  had  merely  enlisted  as  a  pri- 
vate soldier  "in  the  sixty-sixth  Blues,"  and  had  been 
"bought  off"  by  his  father  after  only  thirteen  days'  ser- 
vice. "  What  ship  did  you  leave  Europe  in  ?  "  inquired 
Mr.  Gibbes,  with  a  view  of  sending  further  tokens  of 
identity  to  the  Dowager.  To  this  inquiry,  as  we  have 
seen,  Roger  Tichborne  might  have  been  expected  to- 
answer  in  La  Pauline,  but  this  mysterious  person  replied^ 
in  The  Jessie  Miller.  "  And  when  did  she  sail  ?  "  "  On 
the  28th  of  November,  1852,"  was  the  reply ;  whereas 
Roger,  as  we  have  seen,  sailed  on  the  ist  of  March,  1853. 
Asked  as  to  where  he  was  educated,  the  long-lost  heir 
replied,  "At  a  school  in  Southampton,"  where  Roger 
never  was  at  school.      But,  it  happened  that  Lady  Tich- 


WESTMINSTER     HALL.  45 

borne,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gibbes,  had  said  that  her  son 
was  for  three  years  at  the  Jesuit  College  of  Stonyhurst, 
in  Lancashire.  Mr.  Gibbes,  accordingly,  suggested  to 
his  client,  "in  a  humble  station  of  life,"  that  his  memory 
was  at  fault  on  that  point,  but  the  client  maintained  his 
ground  "  Did  she  say  he  had  been  at  Stonyhurst  Col- 
lege^ If  so,  it  was  false;"  and,  he  added,  with  an  oath, 
'  I  have  a  good  mind  never  to  go  near  her  again,  for 
telling  such  a  story,"  Still,  this  strange  person  was  able 
to  confirm  the  entire  story  of  the  tramping  sailors.  He 
had  embarked  in  the  Bella,  he  had  been  picked  up  at  sea 
with  other  survivors,  in  a  boat,  off  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
and  it  was  quite  true  that  he  was  landed  with  them  in 
Melbourne.  In  short,  he  corroborated  the  Dowager's 
long  advertisement  in  every  particular  ;  but  beyond  that, 
he  had  nothing  of  the  slightest  importance  to  tell  which 
was  not  absurdly  incorrect.  His  replies,  however,  were 
forwarded  to  the  Dowager,  with  pressing  requests  to  send 
;^200,  then  ^^250,  and  finally  ^^"400,  to  enable  the  lost 
heir  to  pay  his  debts — an  indispensable  condition  of  his 
leaving  the  colony.  It  is  evident  that  the  statements 
thus  reported  puzzled  the  poor  lady  a  little,  and  she 
seems  to  have  been  unable  to  account  for  the  lost  heir 
sending  his  kind  remembrance  to  his  "grandpa,"  because 
Roger  Tichborne's  paternal  grandfather  died  before  he 
was  born ;  and  his  grandfather  by  the  mother's  side  had 
also  died  several  years  before  Roger  had  left  England,  as 
the  young  man  knew  well  enough,  for  he  took  farewell 
of  him  on  his  last  illness.  She  was  clearly  a  little  sur- 
prised to  hear  that  the  resuscitated  Roger  did  not  un- 
derstand a  word  of  French,  for  "  my  son,"  she  says, 
"was  born  in  Paris,  and  spoke  French  better  than  Eng- 
lish." Still,  she  believed.  "I  fancied,"  she  said  in  one 
letter  to  Gibbes,  "  that  the  photographies  you  sent  me 
are  like  him,  but,  of  course,  after  thirteen  years'  absence 


46  MEMORIES    OF 

there  must  have  been  some  difference  in  the  shape,  as 
Roger  was  very  slim  ;  but,"  she  added,  "  I  suppose  all 
those  large  clothes  would  make  him  appear  bigger  than 
he  is."  Again,  alluding  to  the  "  photographies,"  she  re- 
marks that  at  least  the  hand  in  the  portrait  is  small,  and 
adds,  "  that  peculiar  thing  has  done  a  good  deal  with  me 
to  make  me  recognize  him." 

A  year  and  a  half  was  consumed  in  these  tedious  hag- 
glings  with  brokers  and  agents  for  the  restoration  of  a 
lost  heir,  and  during  great  part  of  that  time  the  lost  heir 
himself  made  no  sign,  but  contented  himself  with  beg- 
ging trifling  loans  of  Gibbes  on  the  strength  of  his  pre- 
tensions. Sometimes  a  pound  was  the  modest  request  ; 
sometimes  ''two  pound."  He  had  married,  and  a  child 
was  born,  and  on  that  occasion  he  implored  for  "  three 
pound,"  plaintively  declaring  that  he  was  "  more  like  a 
mannick  than  a  B.  of  B.  K.  (supposed  to  mean  a  Bar- 
onet of  British  Kingdom)  to  have  a  child  born  in  such  a 
hovel."  Still  the  client  of  Mr.  Gibbes,  and  now  claim- 
ant to  the  vast  estates  of  Tichborne,  wrapped  himself  in 
impenetrable  secrecy.  The  Dowager  Lady  Tichborne 
complains  that  while  pressed  to  send  everybody  money, 
she  was  not  even  allowed  to  know  the  whereabouts  nor 
present  name  of  her  lost  Roger ;  and  she  entreated,^ 
piteously,  to  be  allowed  to  communicate  more  directly. 
It  was  nothing  to  her  that  the  accounts  he  had  given  of 
Roger  Tichborne's  life  were  wrong  in  every  particular, 
except  where  her  own  advertisement  had  furnished  in- 
formation. "  I  think,"  she  said  on  this  point,  "  my  poor, 
dear  Roger  confuses  everything  in  his  head,  just  as  in  a 
dream,  and  I  believe  him  to  be  my  son,  though  his  state- 
ments differ  from  mine." 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  curious  triangular  cor- 
respondence between  Gibbes  in  Wagga-Wagga,  Cubitt 
in  Sydney,  and  the   poor  mother  in  Paris,  that  trouble 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  47 

once  more  entered  the  old  home  at  Tichborne.  Sir 
Alfred,  the  younger  brother  of  Roger,  was  dead,  and  the 
poor  half-crazed  mother,  in  her  solitary  lodging  in  the 
Place  de  la  Madeleine,  was  left  more  than  ever  desolate. 
Widowed  and  childless,  she  had  nothing  now  but  to 
brood  over  her  sorrows,  and  cling  to  the  old  dream  of 
the  miraculous  saving  of  her  eldest  born,  who,  since  the 
terrible  hour  of  shipwreck — now  twelve  years  past — had 
given  no  token  of  existence.  The  position  of  affairs  at 
Tichborne  was  remarkable,  for  though  there  were  hopes 
of  an  heir  to  Tichborne,  Sir  Alfred  had  left  no  child. 
For  the  moment  the  curse  of  Lady  Mabella  seemed  to 
be  fulfilled.  Should  the  child — unborn,  but  already 
fatherless — prove  to  be  a  girl,  or  other  mischance  befal, 
there  was  an  end  of  the  old  race  of  Tichborne.  The 
property  would  then  go  to  collaterals,  and  the  baronetcy 
must  become  extinct.  It  was  under  the  weight  of  these 
new  sorrows  that  the  Dowager  Lady  Tichborne  wrote 
pitiable  letters  to  Gibbes,  promising  money  and  asking 
for  more  particulars ;  while  inclosing,  at  the  same  time, 
to  the  man  who  thus  unaccountably  kept  himself  aloof, 
a  letter  beginning,  "  My  dear  and  beloved  Roger,  I  hope 
you  will  not  refuse  to  come  back  to  your  poor  afflicted 
mother.  I  have  had  the  great  misfortune  to  lose  your  poor 
dear  father,  and  lately  I  have  lost  my  beloved  son 
Alfred.  I  am  now  alone  in  this  world  of  sorrow,  and  I 
hope  you  will  take  that  into  consideration,  and  come 
back." 

It  is  hardly  surprising  that  during  this  time  Mr. 
Gibbes  was  constantly  urging  his  mysterious  client  to  re- 
linquish his  disguise.  Why  so  shy  ?  In  the  commence- 
ment of  the  affair  he  had,  it  is  true,  been  shy  and  re- 
served ;  and,  but  for  the  imprudent  fellow's  habit  of 
carving  the  initials  R.  C.  T.  on  mantel-pieces,  and  mark- 
ing them  on  his  pipe,  and  smoking  it  under  Mr.  Gibbes* 


48  MEMORIES    OF 

nose — and  this  just  at  the  time  when  the  Dowager's  ad- 
vertisement was  flourishing  in  the  Austrahan  papers — 
that  simple-minded  attorney  might  never  have  discovered 
his  secret.  But  now  all  reserve  was  thrown  off,  at  least 
between  attorney  and  client ;  and  it  had  long  been  un- 
derstood that  the  wanderer  was  willing  to  go  home  and 
claim  his  title  and  estates.  Why,  then,  not  declare  him- 
self boldly  ?  Why  not  write  to  the  mother  and  mention 
some  facts  known  only  to  those  two,  which  would  at 
once  convince  her?  True,  he  had  already  mentioned 
"  facts,"  which  turned  out  to  be  fictions,  and  yet  the 
Dowager's  faith  was  unabated.  Mr.  Gibbes'  client  was, 
therefore,  justified  in  his  answer,  that  he  "did  not  think 
it  needful."  But,  Gibbes  was  pressing,  for  it  happened 
that  the  Dowager  had,  in  one  of  her  letters,  said,  "  I 
shall  expect  an  answer  from  him.  As  I  know  his  hand- 
writing, I  shall  know  at  once  whether  it  is  from  him." 
Accordingly,  Mr.  Gibbes'  client,  unde-r  the  eye  of  his  at- 
torney, sat  down  at  last,  and  penned  the  following 
epistle : — 

"  Wagga-Wagga,  Jan.  17  66. 

"  My  Dear  Mother, — The  delay  which  has  taken  place 
since  my  last  Letter  Dated  22d  April  54  Makes  it  very- 
difficult  to  Commence  this  letter.  I  deeply  regret  the 
truble  and  anxoiety  I  must  have  cause  you  by  not  writ- 
ing before.  But  they  are  known  to  my  Attorney  And 
the  more  private  details  I  will  keep  for  your  own  Ear. 
Of  one  thing  rest  Assured  that  although  I  have  been  in 
A  humble  conditoin  of  Life  I  have  never  let  any  act  dis- 
grace you  or  my  Family.  I  have  been  A  poor  Man  and 
nothing  worse.  Mr.  Gilbes  suggest  to  me  as  essential. 
That  I  should  recall  to  your  memory  things  which  can 
only  be  known  to  you  and  to  me  to  convince  you  of  my 
Idenitity.  I  dont  think  it  needful  my  dear  Mother, 
although  I  sind  them  Mamely.   the  Brown  Mark  on  my 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  49 

side.  And  the  Card  Case  at  Brighton.  I  can  assure  you 
My  Dear  Mother  I  have  keep  your  promice  ever  since. 
In  writing  to  me  please  enclose  your  letter  to  Mr.  Gilbes 
to  prevent  unnesersery  enquiry  as  I  do  not  wish  any 
person  to  know  me  in  this  Country.  When  I  take  my 
proper  prosition  and  title.  Having  therefore  made  up 
my  mind  to  return  and  face  the  Sea  once  more  I  must 
request  you  to  send  me  the  Means  of  doing  so  and  pay- 
ing a  fue  outstranding  debts.  I  would  return  by  the 
overland  Mail.  The  passage  Money  and  other  expences 
would  be  over  two  Hundred  pound,  for  I  propose  Sail- 
ing from  Victoria  not  this  colonly  And  to  Sail  from  Mel- 
bourne in  my  own  Name.  Now  to  annable  me  to  do 
this  my  dear  Mother  you  must  send  me  " 

In  the  original  letter  the  half-sheet  is  now  torn  off  at 
this  point,  but  it  has  been  stated  by  the  Dowager's  solici- 
tor, who  saw  it  when  complete,  that  the  ending  originally 
contained  the  words  "  How's  Grandma  ?  "  If  so,  the  fact 
must  have  again  puzzled  the  Dowager,  for  Roger  had  no 
*'■  Grandma "  living  when  he  went  away.  The  date, 
"  22d  April,  '54,"  was  also  certainly  incorrect,  for  the 
Bella  sailed  away  on  April  20th,  and  was  never  heard  of 
more.  But  there  were  other  difficulties ;  Lady  Tich- 
borne  had  never  seen,  and  what  is  more,  had  never  heard 
of  any  brown  mark  on  her  son  Roger ;  she  could  say 
nothing  about  the  "  card  case  at  Brighton  "  (which 
referred,  according  to  Mr.  Gibbes,  to  the  Claimant's 
assertion  that  he  had  left  England  in  consequence  of 
having  been  swindled  out  of  ;^i,5oo  by  prize-fighters 
;it  Brighton  races),  and  lastly  the  anxious  mother 
could  not  recognize  the  handwriting.  From  the  fac- 
similes of  the  writings  of  Roger  Tichborne  and  that 
of  the  Wagga-Wagga  correspondent,  which  we  are 
enabled  to  give,  the  reader  may  judge  for  himself 
II.— 4 


50  MEMORIES    OF 

whether  there  was  good  ground  for  her  hesitation.  He 
will  also  see  that  her  correspondent  was  somewhat  dis- 
appointed that  the  mother  did  not  on  this  evidence  at 
once  "  acknowledge  him  as  her  son  ;  "  adding,  "  surely,, 
my  dear  Mama,  you  must  know  my  writing.  You  have 
cause  me  a  deal  of  truble."  The  reproaches,  however, 
were  needless,  for  the  Dowager  declared  her  unabated 
faith  ;  sent  small  sums  and  then  larger,  and  finally  made 
up  her  mind  to  forward  the  four  hundred  pounds.  Mean- 
while she  sent  to  him,  as  well  as  to  her  other  Australian 
correspondent,  much  family  information.  Among  other 
things,  she  told  him  that  there  was  a  man  named  Guil- 
foyle  at  Sydney,  who  had  been  gardener  for  many  years 
at  Upton  and  Tichborne,  and  another  man  in  the  same 
town  named  Andrew  Bogle,  a  black  man,  who  had  been 
in  the  service  of  Sir  Edward.  Mr.  Gibbes'  client  lost  no 
time  in  finding  out  both  these  persons.  Whether  he 
was,  in  fact,  Roger  Tichborne,  or  whether  he  was  an  im- 
postor, there  was  now  really  no  reason  why  he  should 
not  set  sail  to  join  the  Dowager  in  Paris.  Her  letters, 
spread  over  many  months,  had  revealed  her  singular 
character.  They  had  shown  her  proof  against  every 
suspicious  token.  Even  total  dissemblance  of  hand- 
writing had  not  shaken  her  faith,  and  it  was  evident 
from  her  letters  that  the  "  photographies,"  making 
allowances,  as  she  said,  for  changes,  were  in  her  fancy 
like  her  son.     Why,  then,  should  he  hesitate? 

It  was  shortly  after  this  time  that  it  became  known  in 
the  colonies  of  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales  that 
there  was  a  man  named  Thomas  Castro,  living  in  Wagga- 
Wagga  as  a  journeyman  slaughterman  and  butcher,  who 
was  going  to  England  to  lay  claim  to  the  baronetcy  and 
estates  of  Tichborne.  From  the  letters  and  other  facts 
it  is  manifest  that  it  was  originally  intended  to  keep  all 
this  secret  even  from  the  Dowager,     "  He  wishes,"  says 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  51 

his  attorney,  Mr.  Gibbes,  "  that  his  present  identity 
should  be  totally  disconnected  from  his  future."  It 
happened  that  one  Cator,  a  Wagga-Wagga  friend  of  the 
Claimant,  whose  letters  show  him  to  have  been  a  coarse- 
minded  and  illiterate  man,  was  leaving  for  England 
shortly  before  the  time  that  Castro  had  determined  to 
embark.  Whether  invited  or  not,  Cator  was  not  unlikely 
to  favor  his  friend  with  a  visit  in  the  new  and  flourishing 
condition  which  appeared  to  await  him  in  that  country. 
Perhaps  for  this  reason  and  clearly  for  the  sake  of  avoid- 
ing inconveniences  that  might  result  from  this  man's 
knowledge  of  the  past,  Castro  gave  to  Cator  a  sealed 
envelope,  bearing  outside  the  words,  "  To  be  open  when 
at  sea,"  :ind  inside  a  note,  verbatim,  as  follows: 

"  Wagga  Wagga,  April  2nd,  1866. 

"Mr.  Cator, — At  any  time  wen  you  are  in  England 
you  should  feel  enclined  for  a  month  pleasure  Go  to 
Tichborne,  in  Hampshire,  Enquire  for  Sir  Roger  Charles 
Tichborne,  Tichborne-hall,  Tichborne,  And  you  will  find 
One  that  will  make  you  a  welcome  Guest.  But  on  no 
account  Mension  the  Name  of  Castro  or  Alude  to  me 
being  a  Married  Man,  or  that  I  have  being  has  a 
Butcher.  You  will  understand  me,  I  have  no  doubt. 
Yours  truly,  Thomas  Castro.     I  Sail  by  the  June  Mail." 

All  this  secrecy,  however,  was  soon  given  up  as  im- 
practicable ;  for  articles  in  the  famous  Melbourne 
Argus,  and  the  Wagga-Wagga  and  Sydney  journals, 
quickly  brought  the  news  to  England,  and  finally  Castro 
determined  to  take  with  him  his  wife  and  family.  One 
of  his  earliest  steps  was  to  take  into  his  service  the  old 
black  man.  Bogle,  and  pay  the  passage-money  both  of 
himself  and  his  son  to  Europe  with  him.  Whether  Bogle 
believed  the  stout  slaughterman  of  Wagga-Wagga  to  be 
the  same  person  as  the  slim  young  gentleman  whom  he 
must   have    seen  often  on  his  visits  to  Tichborne  many 


52 


MEMORIES     OF 


years  before  ;  whether  he  was  consciously  assisting  a 
fraud,  or  whether  he  was  merely  indifferent  to  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  it  v/as  a  fraud  or  not — is  matter  still  of 
:fierce  controversy.  A  high  authority  has  acquitted  the 
■old  black  man  of  anything  like  criminal  connivance. 
But  that  he  was  useful  in  aiding  Castro's  claims  is  cer- 
tain;  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  though  clear  enough 
in  intellect,  he  was  decrepit  and  unable  to  render  any 
■other  kind  of  service  in  return  for  the  wages  and  the 
heavy  expenses  which  his  new  master  undertook  on  his 
account.  Certain  relics  of  Upton  and  of  Tichborne, 
which  the  Claimant  forwarded  to  a  banker  at  Wagga- 
Wagga  from  Avhom  he  was  trying  to  obtain  advances, 
were  described  by  the  Claimant  himself  as  brought  over 
by  "  my  uncle  Valet  who  is  now  living  with  me."  The 
bankers,  however,  were  cautious ;  when  the  Claimant 
made  statements  about  his  past  history,  they  were 
enabled  from  more  than  one  source  to  compare  them 
with  facts  in  the  true  life — especially  as  regards  the 
military  career — of  Roger  Tichborne.  Hence  it  w^as 
that  they  declined  to  make  loans,  though  Mr.  Gibbes 
was  able  to  prove  that  the  mother  had  thought  favorably 
of  the  "  Photographies."  Nevertheless  the  Claimant 
had  the  good  fortune  to  convince  a  Mr.  Long,  who  was 
in  Sydney  and  had  seen  Roger  "  when  a  boy  of  ten  years 
old  riding  in  Tichborne  Park,"  and  accordingly  this  gen- 
tleman advanced  him  a  considerable  sum.  Finally,  the 
Dowager  received  the  information  that  her  long-lost  son, 
Roger  Tichborne,  had  embarked  aboard  the  Rakaia  on 
his  way  to  France  via  Panama. 

"  Sir  Roger  "  and  "  Lady  Tichborne,"  accompanied  by 
their  family,  and  attended  by  old  Bogle,  his  son,  and  a 
youthful  secretary,  left  Sydney  on  September  2nd,  1866, 
and  the  long-lost  heir  was  expected  by  the  Dowager  in 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  53 

Paris  within  two  months  from  that  date.  But  nearly 
four  months  had  elapsed,  and  there  were  no  tidings. 

Between  Christmas  Day  and  New  Years'  Eve  of  that 
year  there  arrived  in  Alresford  a  mysterious  stranger, 
who  put  up  at  the  Swan  Hotel  in  that  little  town,  and 
said  that  his  name  was  Taylor.  He  was  a  man  of  enor- 
mous bulk  and  of  eccentric  attire.  He  wrapped  himself 
in  large  great  coats,  muffled  his  neck  and  chin  in  thick 
shawls,  and  wore  a  cap  with  a  peak  of  unusual  dimensions, 
which,  when  it  was  pulled  down,  covered  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  features. 

The  Swan  is  a  good  old-fashioned  hostelry,  with  a 
wide  entrance  and  extensive  ranges  of  stables.  Visitors 
there  in  the  hunting  season  are  by  no  means  rare ;  but 
then  the  Swan  generally  knows  its  patrons,  and  this 
man  was  strange.  He  seemed  to  have  no  business 
there,  and  to  know  nobody.  He  preferred  a  private 
room  to  the  coffee-room,  and  he  went  out  for  solitary 
walks.  Yet  he  was  not  altogether  shy  and  uncommuni- 
cative ;  on  the  contrary,  he  stopped  poor  people  on  the 
roads,  asked  the  way  to  Tichborne  Church,  about  three 
miles  off,  and  casually  mentioned  the  current  rumor 
that  Roger  Tichborne  was  coming  back. 

The  stranger  showed  further  signs  of  coming  out  of 
his  reserve.  Mr.  Taylor  sent  for  Rous,  the  landlord,  and 
had  a  chat  with  him,  in  the  course  of  which  he  asked 
Rous  to  take  him  the  next  day  for  a  drive  round  the 
neighborhood  of  Tichborne.  Rous  complied,  and  the 
innkeeper,  chatting  all  the  way  on  local  matters,  showed 
his  guest  Tichborne  village,  Tichborne  park  and  house, 
the  church,  the  mill,  the  village  of  Cheriton,  and  all  else 
that  was  worth  seeing  in  that  neighborhood.  In  fact 
Mr.  Taylor  became  very  friendly  with  Rous,  invited 
him  to  drink  in  his  room,  and  then  confided  to  him  an 
important  secret — which,  however,  was  by  this  time  no 


54  MEMORIES    OF 

secret  at  all,  for  Mr.  Rous  had  just  observed  upon  his 
guest's  portmanteau  the  initials  "  R.  C.  T."  Indeed  it 
was  already  suspected  in  the  smoking-room  of  the  Swan 
that  the  enormous  stranger  was  the  long-expected  heir. 
Suspicion  became  certainty  when  the  stranger  tele- 
graphed for  Bogle,  and  that  faithful  black,  once  familiar 
in  the  streets  of  Alresford,  suddenly  made  his  appear- 
ance there,  began  reconnoitering  the  house  at  Tichborne, 
contrived  to  get  inside  the  old  home,  to  learn  that  it  had 
been  let  by  the  trustees  of  the  infant  baronet  to  a  gen- 
tleman named  Lushington,  and  to  examine  carefully  the 
position  of  the  old  and  new  pictures  hanging  on  the  walls. 

This  done,  "Mr.  Taylor"  and  his  black  attendant  dis- 
appeared as  suddenly  as  they  had  come.  But  the  news 
spread  abroad,  and  reached  many  persons  who  were 
interested.  Roger's  numerous  aunts,  uncles,  and  cousins 
heard  of  the  sudden  appearance  of  the  long-expected 
Australian  claimant.  The  Dowager  in  Paris,  the  mother 
of  the  infant,  then  at  Ryde,  all  heard  the  news ;  and 
finally  Mr.  Gosford,  Roger's  dearest  and  most  intimate 
friend  and  confidant,  then  in  North  Wales,  got  intelli- 
gence, and  hastened  to  London  to  ascertain  if  the  joyful 
news  could  be  true. 

But  the  enormous  individual  had  vanished  again.  The 
circumstance  was  strange.  Bogle,  it  was  true,  had 
written  letters  from  Australia  declaring  that  this  was 
the  identical  gentleman  he  had  known  years  before  as 
Mr.  Roger  Tichborne,  when  a  visitor  at  Sir  Edward's ; 
and  the  Dowager,  though  she  had  declined  to  show  her 
relatives  the  "  photographies,"  had  declared  herself 
satisfied.  But  why  did  the  long-lost  Roger  hold  aloof? 
Why  did  he  not  rush  down  to  see  his  old  friend  Gosford? 
Why  no  note  even  to  Lady  Doughty  ? — no  token  of  old 
friendship  to  relations  at  Brookwood,  at  Townely,  or  at 
Knoyle. 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  55 

With  infinite  pains  Mr,  Gosford  and  a  gentleman  con- 
nected with  the  Tichborne  family,  ascertained  that  the 
person  who  had  figured  as  Mr.  Taylor,  at  the  Swan,  had 
taken  apartments  for  himself  and  his  family  at  an  hotel 
near  Manchester  Square,  and  that  he  had  even  been 
there  since  Christmas  Day.  But  once  more  the  clue  was 
lost.  Sir  Roger  Tichborne  had  gone  away,  with  his 
wife  and  children,  and  left  no  one  there  but  Bogle  and 
his  secretary.  Then,  by  miraculous  chance,  Mr.  Gos- 
ford discovered  that  "  Sir  Roger  "  was  staying  at  the 
Clarendon  Hotel,  Gravesend.  Forthwith,  Mr.  Gosford, 
with  the  gentleman  referred  to,  and  Mr.  Cullington,  the 
solicitor,  went  to  the  Clarendon  Hotel  at  Gravesend, 
where,  after  long  waiting  in  the  hall,  they  saw  a  stout 
person,  muffled,  and  wearing  a  peaked  cap  over  the  eyes, 
Tvho,  having  glanced  at  the  party  suspiciously,  rushed 
past  them,  hurried  up-stairs,  and  locked  himself  in  a 
room.  In  vain  the  party  sent  up  cards,  in  vain  Mr.  Gos- 
ford followed  and  tapped  at  the  door.  The  stout  per- 
son would  not  open,  and  the  party  descended  to  the 
coffee  room,  where,  soon  afterwards,  they  received  a 
mysterious  note,  concluding: — 

"  pardon  me  gentlemen  but  i  did  not  wish  any-one  to 
know  where  i  was  staying  with  my  family.  And  was 
much  anoyed  to  see  you  all  here.     R.  C.  TICHBORNE." 

Lady  Tichborne  herself  had  failed  to  recognize  in  the 
letters  from  Wagga-Wagga  the  handwriting  of  her  son. 
Mr.  Gosford  was  equally  unsuccessful  in  detecting  any 
similarity  between  this  note  and  the  familiar  hand, 
either  in  penmanship  or  style,  nor  had  he  ever  known 
Mr.  Tichborne  sign  his  surname  with  a  small  initial  let- 
ter. The  party,  therefore,  left  the  house,  after  warning 
the  landlord  that  he  had  for  a  guest  an  "  impostor  and  a 
rogue." 

Still,  the  idea  that  his  old  friend,  who  had  made  him 


56  MEMORIES     OF 

his  executor  and  the  depositary  of  his  most  secret 
wishes,  could  have  come  back  again  alive,  however 
changed,  was  too  pleasing  to  be  abandoned  by  Mr.  Gos- 
ford,  even  on  such  evidence.  Accordingly,  by  arrange- 
ment with  an  attorney  named  Holmes,  he  went 
down  again,  and,  more  successful  this  time,  had  con- 
versation with  the  stranger  who  called  himself  Roger 
Tichborne.  But  neither  the  features,  nor  the  voice,  nor 
the  manner  of  the  man  brought  back  to  him  any  recol- 
lection. Mr.  Gosford  has  related,  at  length,  the  story 
of  that  interview,  and  has  told  us  how  he  found  this 
man  totally  ignorant  of  all  their  past  associations,  and 
unable  to  give  any  intelligible  account  of  Roger  Tich- 
borne's  career,  his  habits,  family,  or  connections,  with 
all  which  things  Mr.  Gosford  was  intimately  acquainted. 

Meanwhile,  the  Dowager  Lady  Tichborne  had  learned 
that  the  long-expected  Roger  had  arrived  in  England  p 
and  she  wrote  letters  imploring  him  to  come  to  her,  ta 
which  the  Claimant,  who  had  not  been  in  London  more 
than  a  fortnight,  answered  that  he  was  "  prevented  by 
circumstances!"  and  added,  "Oh!  Do  come  over  and' 
see  me  at  once."  On  the  very  day  after  the  date  of  this 
letter,  however,  he  arrived  in  Paris,  accompanied  by  a 
man  whose  acquaintance  he  had  casually  made  in  a 
billiard  room,  and  by  Mr.  Holmes,  the  attorney,  tO' 
whom  his  casual  acquaintance  had  introduced  him.  The 
party  put  up  at  an  hotel  inj;he  Rue  St.  Honore.  They 
knew  Lady  Tichborne's  address  in  the  Place  de  la 
Madeleine,  scarcely  five  minutes'  walk  from  their  hotel ; 
but  they  had  arrived  somewhat  late,  and  "  Sir  Roger  " 
paid  no  visit  to  his  mother  that  day. 

For  some  months  past  Lady  Tichborne  had  cautiously 
confided  to  friends  something  of  the  facts  of  the  Sydney 
and  Wagga-Wagga  correspondence.  She  had  told  her 
brother,  Mr.  Seymour,  that  Roger  had  been  found,  and 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  57 

was  coming   home,  but    had  refused    to  show  him    the 
letters   or   the   portrait.     To    her   solicitor,    Mr.  James 
Bowker,   she  was  more   communicative ;    and  she  gave 
him   to  read    letters  dated    Wagga-Wagga,  and  signed^ 
"  Roger  Charles  Tichborne."    Mr.  James  Bowker  had  not 
known   Roger  Tichborne,  and  did   not  know  his  hand- 
writing,  but,  having  carefully  scrutinized    the  singular 
epistles,  he  pointed  out  to  her  that  they  were  clearly  the 
writing  of  an  illiterate  Englishman  of  the  lower  class  ; 
that  the  writer  asked  for  money  on  no  evidence  of  being 
entitled  to  any  ;  and  that  he  inquired,  "  How's  Grand- 
ma ?"  when  Roger  Tichborne  must  have  known  that  he 
had    no    grandmother.      Mr.    James    Bowker   was    not 
aware  that  the  writer  had  also  sent  remembrances  to  a 
non-existent  "  grandpa,"  but  he  told  his  client  that  there 
was  not  a  sentence  in  the  letter  which  was  not  open  to 
observation.     Lady  Tichborne,  however,  was  only  angry 
at  this  want  of  faith,  and  after  a  short  time,  Mr.  James 
Bowker  discovered  that  the  lady  had  no  further  need  of 
his  professional  services.     In  like  manner  she  appealed 
to  Roger's  cousin,  and  old  schoolfellow,  the  Vicomte  de 
Brimont  ;  but  the  Vicomte  proved  equally  cautious,  and 
was  accordingly  dropped   shortly   after.     When   at   last 
she  learned  that  her  Roger  had  actually  arrived,  and  was 
staying  at  an  hotel  near  by,  she  appealed  to  her  spiritual 
adviser,  the  venerable  Abbe  Salis.     But  the  Abbe  Salis 
had  told  us  that  he  was  aware  that  she  had,  as  French- 
men say,  la  tete  vialade  ;  and  that  this  matter  of  her  lost 
son's  being  still  alive  was  with  her  a  mania — H7ie  id^e 
fixe.     In  vain  she  implored  him  "to  go  and  recognize  " 
one   whom    he    had    known    so  well,  but    the  reverend 
gentleman  had  but  one  answer.     "  If  this  were   Roger 
(he  said)  he  would  assuredly  not  have  waited  for  me  to 
go  to  him." 

Thus   deserted,    the   poor  lady   rose    early    the    next 


58  MEMORIES     OF 

morning,  and  sent  her  Irish  servant,  John  Coyne,  to  the 
hotel  in  the  Rue  St.  Honore  with  a  pressing  message. 
The  story  of  the  first  meeting  between  mother  and  son, 
after  fourteen  years  of  painful  separation,  has  now  be- 
come familiar  to  most  persons.  John  Coyne  has  told  us 
how  he  went  to  the  hotel  to  see  "  Sir  Roger  Tichborne," 
but  was  told  he  was  not  well ;  how  his  mistress,  dissatis- 
fied with  that  message,  sent  him  again,  whereupon  "  Sir 
Roger"  came  out  of  his  bed-room  and  walked  past  him 
"  slowly,  and  with  his  head  down,"  bidding  him,  at  the 
same  time,  go  and  tell  his  mamma  that  he  was  not  able 
to  come  to  her;  and  how  his  mistress,  still  more  dissatis- 
fied, then  directed  her  servant  "to  take  a  cab  imme- 
diately and  fetch  her  son."  Coyne  has  also  related  how 
he  then  went  a  third  time,  and  found  "  Sir  Roger," 
with  his  attorney  and  his  casual  acquaintance,  sitting  at 
breakfast,  but  was  again  unsuccessful.  Then  Coyne  has 
told,  with  infinite  gravity,  how  Lady  Tichborne  that 
afternoon  went  herself  to  the  hotel,  and  was  then  per- 
mitted to  see  her  son  in  a  darkened  chamber,  and  in  the 
presence  of  his  attorney  and  friend.  "  Sir  Roger,"  said 
Coyne,  "  was  lying  on  the  bed,  with  his  back  turned  to 
us,  and  his  face  to  the  wall,"  and  he  added  that  while  he 
was  in  that  position,  his  mistress  leaned  over  and  kissed 
Sir  Roger  on  the  mouth,  observing,  at  the  same  time, 
that  "  he  looked  like  his  father,  though  his  ears  were 
like  his  uncle's."  Then,  "Sir  Roger"  having  remarked 
that  he  was  "  nearly  stifled,"  Lady  Tichborne  directed 
Coyne  to  "  take  off  her  son's  coat  and  undo  his  braces," 
which  duties  the  faithful  domestic  accomplished  with 
some  diflftculty,  while  at  the  same  time  he  "  managed  to 
pull  him  over  as  well  as  he  could."  Upon  this,  Mr. 
Holmes,  solemnly  standing  up,  addressed  John  Coyne 
in  the  words:  "  You  are  a  witness  that  Lady  Tichborne 
recognizes  her  son,"  and   John    Coyne    having   replied 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  59 

^*  And  so  are  you,"  the  ceremony  of  recognition  was 
complete. 

Soon  after  this  event,  it  became  known  to  gossips,  in 
the  parlor  of  the  Swan,  that  the  Dowager  Lady  Tich- 
borne  had  acknowledged  that  the  stranger  was  indeed 
her  lost  son  Roger;  that  she  had  determined  to  allow 
the  repentant  wanderer  ;^  1,000  a  year;  that  he  was 
going  to  take  a  house  at  Croydon,  pending  his  entering 
into  the  possession  of  the  Tichborne  estates.  There- 
upon there  was  great  joy  in  Alresford,  for  it  seemed 
that  Tichborne,  which  had  been  let  to  a  mere  stranger 
by  the  trustees  of  the  late  Sir  Alfred's  posthumous  son 
— was  to  have  a  master  again  of  the  old  race.  The  joy 
became  frantic  delight  when  it  was  known  that  "  Mr. 
Taylor,"  throwing  off  his  disguise  and  declaring  himself 
as  "  Sir  Roger  Charles  Tichborne,"  was  about  to  visit 
the  Swan  once  more. 

There  happened  then  to  be  living  in  Alresford  a  gen- 
tleman named  Hopkins.  He  had  been  solicitor  to  the 
Tichborne  family,  but  they  had  long  ceased  to  employ 
him.  He  had  also  been  a  trustee  of  the  Doughty 
estates,  but  had  been  compelled  to  resign  that  position, 
at  which  he  had  expressed  much  chagrin.  Hopkins  had 
an  acquaintance  named  Baigent,  at  Winchester,  an 
eccentric  person,  of  an  inquisitive  turn.  Both  these 
personages  began  at  this  time  to  busy  themselves 
greatly  in  the  matter  of  the  Tichborne  Claimant,  who, 
on  his  next  visit  to  Alresford,  was  accordingly  invited  to 
stay  at  Mr.  Hopkins's  house.  From  that  time  Mr.  Hop- 
kins and  Mr,  Baigent  become  active  partisans  of  the 
Claimant's  cause.  Hopkins  had  not  been  the  solicitor 
of  Roger  Tichborne,  but  he  had  seen  him  occasionally 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  previously  ;  and  he  made  an 
affidavit  that  "  though  he  could  not  recall  the  expression 
of  Roger  Tichborne's  features,"  he  had  no  doubt,  from 


6o  MEMORIES    OF 

the  knowledge  which  the  Claimant  had  shown  of  the- 
neighborhood  of  Tichborne,  and  of  family  matters,  that 
he  was  the  same  person.  All  Alresford  may,  in  fact,  be 
said  to  have  been  converted  ;  the  bells  were  rung  on  the 
Claimant's  arrival  there ;  and  Colonel  Lushington,  the 
then  tenant  of  Tichborne  House,  invited  the  Australian 
stranger  and  his  wife  to  stay  with  him  there.  Colonel 
Lushington  had  never  seen  Roger  Tichborne,  but  he  has 
explained  that  he  was  impressed  by  his  visitor's  knowl- 
edge of  the  old  pictures  on  the  walls,  which,  it  will  be 
remembered,  Bogle  had  been  sent  by  "  Mr.  Taylor  "  to 
reconnoiter.  When  the  news  came  that  "  Sir  Roger's. 
wife,"  on  a  visit  with  her  husband  to  Col.  Lushington^ 
had  had  a  child  baptized  in  the  chapel  at  Tichborne, 
while  Mr.  Anthony  Biddulph,  another  convert,  and  a. 
remote  connection  of  the  Tichborne  family,  had  become 
godfather,  the  bells  of  Alresford  rang  louder ;  and  few 
in  that  town  would  have  been  hardy  enough  to  question 
the  proposition  that  a  mother  must  be  held  "  to  know 
her  own  son."' 

Still  it  was  strange  that  "  Sir  Roger  "  went  near  none, 
of  his  old  friends.  He  had  left  Paris  without  an  effort 
to  see  his  former  circle  of  acquaintances.  Chatillon,  his 
early  tutor,  had  been  brought  by  the  Dowager  there  to 
see  him  ;  but  Chatillon  had  said,  "  Madame,  this  is  not 
your  son."  Neither  the  Abbe  Salis,  nor  Roger's  dear 
old  instructor,  Father  Lefevre,  nor  Gossein,  the  faithful 
valet,  who  had  played  with  him  from  childhood,  and  had 
known  him  well  as  a  man,  nor,  indeed,  any  person  in 
Paris  who  had  been  acquainted  with  Roger  Tichborne, 
received  a  visit.  In  England  the  facts  were  the  same. 
When  at  Alresford  the  stranger  was  invited  to  go  over 
to  Brookwood,  and  see  Mrs.  Greenwood,  for  whom, 
Roger  had  so  strong  a  regard ;  but  he  pleaded  a  head- 
ache, and  excused  himself  in   a  letter  beginning  "  My^ 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  6i 

•dear  Cousing  Kate."  In  short,  to  no  one  of  the  cousins, 
aunts,  and  uncles,  with  whom  Roger  had  always  been 
on  affectionate  terms,  did  "  Sir  Roger  "  go.  When  liti- 
gation was  threatened,  which  it  was  known  must  cause 
heavy  expense,  ultimately  to  come  out  of  the  fortune 
of  the  fatherless  child,  it  was  proposed  that  the  new- 
comer should  meet  all  the  Tichborne  family  at  a  general 
gathering  ;  but  it  was  of  no  avail.  To  do  him  justice, 
the  Claimant  did  not  shrink  from  writing  several  letters 
to  those  persons,  who  were  startled,  however,  to  find 
that  he  added  the  word  "  Bart."  to  his  signature,  while 
neither  his  style  nor  handwriting  bore,  in  their  judgment, 
the  faintest  resemblance  to  that  of  Roger.  Mr.  Danby 
Seymour,  Roger's  uncle,  took  the  step  of  calling  at  Mr. 
Hopkins's  when  the  Claimant  was  staying  there,  and 
taking  with  him  William  Bardon,  an  old  servant  of  Sir 
James.  But  there  was  no  recognition  on  either  side. 
Finally — more  than  four  months  after  the  Claimant's 
arrival — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Radcliffe  obtained  an  interview 
with  the  Claimant,  at  Croydon,  and  with  them  was  Mrs. 
Towneley.  Mrs.  Radcliffe,  as  the  reader  knows,  was  in 
her  maiden  days  the  Miss  Kate  Doughty,  for  love  of 
whom  Roger  Tichborne  had  suffered  so  much ;  and  the 
house  of  Mrs.  Towneley,  another  cousin,  had  been  one 
of  Roger's  homes.  But  "  Sir  Roger  "  was  clearly  un- 
able to  distinguish  the  two  ladies  ;  for  he  addressed  Mrs. 
Towneley,  whose  name  was  Lucy,  in  the  words,  **  How 
do  you  do,  Kate?"  while  Mrs.  Radcliffe  he  called 
"  Lucy."  All  the  parties  present,  except  the  Claimant, 
agree  that  he  continued  to  converse  under  this  erroneous 
impression  of  their  identity,  until  asked  by  Mr.  Rad- 
cliffe whether  he  was  quite  sure  he  was  addressing  his 
cousins  by  their  right  names. 

Meanwhile,  active  measures  were  in  preparation  for 
those  tedious  legal  proceedings  which  have  occupied  so 


62  MEMORIES     OF 

large  a  share  of  public  attention.  Mr.  Holmes,  and 
many  others,  were  busy  in  procuring  information,  which 
may,  or  may  not,  have  been,  but  which,  undoubtedly^ 
could  have  been,  very  useful  in  assisting  imposture.. 
The  voluminous  will  of  Roger  Tichborne,  setting  forth  a 
mass  of  particulars  about  the  family  property,  was  ex- 
amined at  Doctors'  Commons.  Then  there  were 
records  of  proceedings  in  the  Probate  Court  and  in 
Chancery,  relating  to  the  Tichborne  estates,  of  which 
copies  were  procured.  The  Horse  Guards  furnished  the 
indefatigable  attorney  with  minute  and  precise  state- 
ments of  the  movements  of  the  Carabineers  during 
Roger  Tichborne's  service,  and  of  the  dates  of  every 
leave  of  absence  and  return.  Then  the  Dowager's 
attorney  procured  from  Stonyhurst  lists  of  the  professors 
and  officials  during  Roger's  three  years'  study  there ; 
and,  finally,  the  books  of  Lloyd's  and  the  "  Merchant 
Seamen's  Register  "  were  searched  for  informiation  about 
the  movements  of  the  Pauline,  Bella,  and  other  vessels. 

Coincident  with  these  researches,  there  was  a  marked 
improvement  in  the  Claimant's  knowledge  of  the  circum- 
stances of  what  he  alleged  to  be  his  own  past  life. 
There  was  no  mention  now  of  "  the  Sixty-sixth  Blues," 
or  of  having  been  a  private  soldier;  no  denial,  with  or 
without  an  oath,  of  having  been  at  Stonyhurst ;  no 
allusion  to  any  other  of  the  numerous  statements  he  had 
made  to  Mr.  Gibbes  on  those  points.  Then  converts  began 
to  multiply,  but  not  among  the  Tichborne  family,  or  in  any 
other  circle  that  had  known  Roger  Tichborne  very  in- 
timately. Affidavits,  however,  increased  in  number.  Peo- 
ple related  wonderful  instances  of  things  the  Claimant  re- 
minded them  of,  and  which  had  happened  in  the  past.  On 
the  one  hand,  these  facts  were  regarded  as  "  genuine 
efforts  of  memory  ;"  on  the  other,  they  were  stigmatized 
as  the  result  of  an  organized  system  of  extracting  infor- 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  63 

mation  from  one  person  and  playing  it  off  upon  another. 
Whether  this  latter  imputation  was  just  or  unjust,  it 
could  not  be  denied  that  the  Claimant's  conduct  afforded 
some  justification  for  it.  Bogle  was  still  in  his  house,  and 
it  was  certain  that  before  attempting  to  win  over  any 
officer  of  Carabineers  to  his  cause,  he  also  took  into  his 
service  a  number  of  old  sergeant-majors  of  the  Cara- 
bineers. Besides  these,  he  hired  Carter,  who  had  been 
the  regimental  servant  of  Mr.  Tichborne,  and  allowed 
him  to  spend  money  freely  among  old  comrades,  and  to 
bring  them  to  the  house  at  Croydon  "  to  recognize  their 
old  officer."  After  this,  several  officers  who  had  known 
Roger  Tichborne  were  induced  to  make  affidavits  ;  but, 
as  a  rule,  these  witnesses  did  not  so  much  depose  to 
their  recognition  of  the  features  as  to  their  having  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  Claimant  was  Roger  Tich- 
borne from  his  being  able  to  remind  them  of  some 
occurrences  connected  with  that  young  gentleman's  mili- 
tary life.  The  bulk  of  the  Claimant's  supporters,  it  is 
true,  were  persons  of  humble  rank  and  little  intelligence  ; 
but  a  considerable  number  were,  certainly,  people  of 
good  education  and  of  high  station.  The  Claimant,  they 
knew,  was  an  illiterate  person ;  but  they  were  told  that 
Roger  Tichborne  made  blunders  in  grammar,  which  was 
true,  but  Lord  Chief  Justice  Cockburn  has  justly 
remarked  that  they  were  the  blunders  of  a  foreigner,  and 
not  vulgarities  habitual  among  the  English  lower  classes. 
The  Claimant's  conversation  and  manners  were  not  those 
of  a  gentleman,  though  they  may  be  supposed  to  have 
been  improving  under  circumstances  and  in  society  very 
different  from  those  of  Wagga-Wagga ;  but  then,  Mr. 
Baigent  resolutely  maintained  that  Roger's  chief  associ- 
ates were  stable-boys,  and  persons  of  like  condition, 
which,  though  ridiculously  incorrect,  was  not  easy  then 
to  disprove. 


«4  MEMORIES     OF 

At  the  end  of  July,  1867,  there  was  a  public  examin- 
ation of  the  Claimant  in  Chancery,  at  which,  for  the  first 
time,  he  made  generally  known  that  famous  account  of 
his  alleged  wreck  and  escape  in  one  of  the  boats  of  the 
Bella,  with  eight  other  persons,  which,  with  some  varia- 
tions, he  has  since  maintained.  It  was  then,  that  in  an- 
swer to  questions  he  stated  that  he  was  not  certain  of 
the  name  of  the  vessel  that  picked  him  up,  but  was  "  un- 
der the  impression  that  it  was  the  OspreyT  He  also  said 
that  her  captain's  name  was  "  Owen  Lewis,  or  Lewis 
Owen,"  but  he  was  "  not  certain,"  though  he  said  that 
three  months  elapsed  between  the  date  of  his  being 
saved  and  his  being  landed  in  Melbourne,  in  July,  1854 
Besides  these,  the  most  remarkable  points  in  his  ex- 
amination were  his  statements  that  on  the  very  next  day 
after  his  arrival  he  was  engaged  by  a  Mr.  William  Fos- 
ter, of  Boisdale,  an  extensive  farmer  in  Gippsland,  to 
look  after  cattle ;  and  that  he  henceforward  lived  in  ob- 
scurity in  Australia  under  the  name  of  Thomas  Castro, 
The  name  of  Thomas  Castro,  he  added,  had  occurred  to 
him  because  during  his  travels  in  South  America  he  had 
known  a  person  so  named  at  Melipilla,  in  Chili. 

Mr.  Gosford  was  also  examined  on  that  occasion  with 
results  which  had  an  important  influence  on  the  progress 
of  the  great  cause  cdebre.  Some  time  before  that  event 
that  gentleman  had  been  induced  to  have  one  more  in- 
terview with  the  Claimant  in  the  presence  of  two  of  his 
most  influential  supporters,  who  thereupon  requested 
Mr.  Gosford  to  test  their  protdgi  by  asking  him  about 
.some  private  matter  between  him  and  his  friend  Roger 
in  the  past.  Thus  challenged  Mr.  Gosford  naturally  be- 
thought him  of  the  sealed  paper,  in  which  Roger  had  re- 
corded his  intention  of  building  a  chapel  or  church  at 
Tichborne,  and  dedicating  it  to  the  Virgin,  in  the  event 
of  his  marrying  his  cousin  within  three  years ;  and  he 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  65 

therefore  requested  the  Claimant  to  declare,  if  he  could 
what  were  the  contents  of  a  certain  packet  marked 
^private"  which  Roger  left  in  his  hands  when  he  went 
away.  Having  obtained  no  definite  answer,  Mr.  Gos- 
ford,  for  the  sake  of  fairness,  went  a  step  further,  and 
said  that  it  recorded  an  intention  "  to  carry  out  an  ar- 
rangement at  Tichborne  in  the  event  of  his  marrying  a 
certain  lady."  Still  there  was  no  answer;  and  there- 
upon Mr.  Gosford,  declaring  that  the  whole  interview 
*'was  idle,"  left  the  place.  The  packet,  unfortunately, 
was  no  longer  in  existence.  Some  years  after  Roger 
Tichborne's  death  appeared  to  be  beyond  all  doubt  Mr. 
Gosford  had  simply  burnt  it,  regarding  it  as  a  document 
which  it  would  be  useless,  and  which  he  had  no  right  to 
keep,  and  yet  one  which,  on  the  other  hand,  he  should 
Hot  be  justified  in  giving  up  to  any  living  person.  The 
fact  of  its  being  burnt  he  had  for  obvious  reasons  con- 
cealed ;  but  being  now  asked  on  the  subject  he  was  com- 
pelled to  state  the  circumstances. 

It  is  remarkable  that  on  the  very  morrow  of  that  dis- 
closure the  Claimant  for  the  first  time  made  a  statement 
to  his  supporter,  Mr.  Bulpett,  as  to  the  packet.  It  may 
be  supposed  that  Mr.  Bulpett  and  the  Claimant's  friend's 
generally  were  inclined  to  draw  unfavorable  inferences 
from  his  apparent  ignorance  of  the  contents  of  the 
packet.  He  now,  however,  declared  that  not  ignorance 
of  its  contents  but  delicacy  and  forbearance  towards  Mrs. 
Radcliffe  had  alone  prevented  his  answering  Mr.  Gos- 
ford's  test  question.  Mr.  Gosford,  he  said,  was  right. 
It  did  relate  to  "  an  arrangement  to  be  carried  out  at 
Tichborne,"  but  an  arrangement  of  a  very  painful  kind. 
Then  it  was  that  he  wrote  out  the  te'rible  charge 
against  the  lady  whom  Roger  had  loved  so  well — con- 
fessing, it  is  true,  his  own  diabolical  wickedness,  but  at 
the  same  time  casting  upon  her  the  crudest  of  imputa- 
"■—5 


66  MEMORIES     OF 

tions.  This,  he  said,  was  what  he  had  sealed  up  and 
given  to  Mr,  Gosford.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  oc- 
curred to  Mr.  Bulpett  or  Mr.  Guildford  Onslow,  while 
lending  aid  and  countenance  to  this  disreputable  busi- 
ness, that  it  was  strange  that  Mr.  Gosford  should  have 
challenged  Roger  Tichborne — if  the  Claimant  were 
Roger  Tichborne— to  speak  in  the  presence  of  others 
on  a  subject  so  disgraceful  to  himself  and  so  injurious 
to  the  reputation  of  a  lady ;  nor  does  he  seem  to  have 
reflected  that,  if  the  matter  was  too  delicate  for  the 
Claimant  to  answer,  it  was  assuredly  too  delicate  for  Mr. 
Gosford  to  question  upon  it.  Mr.  Bulpett,  the  banker, 
however,  put  his  initials  solemnly  to  the  document,  and 
within  a  few  months  all  Hampshire  had  whispered  the 
wicked  story.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  during  all  this 
time  no  word  had  been  spoken  by  the  Claimant  of  his 
having  confided  to  Mr.  Gosford  a  vow  to  build  a  church. 
Four  years  later,  when  under  examination,  he  was  asked 
whether  he  had  ever  left  any  other  private  document 
with  Mr.  Gosford,  and  he  answered,  "  I  think  not."  Then 
it  was  that  counsel  produced  the  copy  of  the  vow  ta 
build  the  church  in  Roger  Tichborne's  hand,  which  he 
had  fortunately  given  to  his  cousin  on  the  sorrowful 
day  of  their  last  parting;  and,  finally,  there  was  found 
and  read  aloud  the  letter  of  Roger  Tichborne  to  Mr. 
Gosford,  dated  January  17th,  1852,  in  which  occur  the 
precious  words,  "  I  have  written  out  my  will  and  left  it 
with  Mr.  Slaughter ;  the  only  thing  which  I  have  left 
out  is  about  the  church,  which  I  will  only  build  under 
the  circumstances  which  I  have  left  with  you  in  writ- 
ing." Happily  these  facts  render  it  unnecessary  to 
enter  upon  the  question  whether  this  story  was  not 
wholly  irreconcilable,  both  with  itself  and  with  the 
ascertained  dates  and  facts  in  Roger  Tichborne's 
career. 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  67 

The  great  estates  of  Tichborne  were  not  likely  to  be 
left  undefended  either  by  the  trustees  or  by  the  family, 
who,  with  the  exception  of  the  Dowager  Lady  Tich- 
borne, had,  with  one  accord,  pronounced  the  Claimant 
an  impostor.  Accordingly  very  soon  after  his  arrival  in 
England  a  gentleman  named  Mackenzie  was  dispatched 
to  Australia  to  make  inquiries. 

Mr.  Mackenzie  visited  Melbourne,  Sydney,  and 
Wagga-Wagga,  and  up  to  a  certain  time  was  singularly 
successful  in  tracing  backwards  the  career  of  Thomas 
Castro.  He  discovered  that,  some  months  before  the 
Dowager's  advertisement  for  her  son  had  appeared,  and 
Mr.  Gibbes'  client  had  set  up  his  claim,  the  slaughter- 
man of  Wagga-Wagga  had  married  an  Irish  servant  girl, 
named  Bryant,  who  had  signed  the  marriage  register 
with  a  cross.  He  also  found  that  the  marriage  was 
celebrated,  not  by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  but  by  a 
Wesleyan  minister.  Searching  further,  he  found  out 
that  immediately  after  the  date  of  the  arrival  of  a 
letter  from  the  Dowager,  informing  Mr.  Gibbes  that 
her  son  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  Thomas  Castro  and 
Mary  Anne  Bryant  had  again  gone  through  the 
ceremony  of  marriage  in  those  names,  and  on  this 
occasion  the  wedding  was  celebrated  in  n  Roman 
Catholic  chapel.  By  applying  to  Mr.  Gibbes,  Mr. 
Mackenzie  then  discovered  that  the  Claimant,  be- 
fore leaving  Australia,  had  given  instructions  for  a  will, 
which  was  subsequently  drawn  up  and  executed  by  him, 
in  which  he  pretended  to  dispose  of  the  Tichborne  es- 
tates, and  described  properties  in  various  counties,  all  of 
which  were  purely  fictitious.  The  Tichborne  family  had 
not,  and  never  had,  any  such  estates  as  were  there 
elaborately  set  forth,  nor  did  any  such  estates  exist  ; 
and  the  will  contained  no  bequest,  nor  indeed  any  al- 
lusion to  a  solitary  member  of  Roger's  family  except  his 


68  MEMORIES     OF 

mother,  whom  it  described  as  Lady  "  Hannah  Frances 
Tichborne,"  though  her  Christian  names  were,  in  fact, 
Henriette  F61icit6."  Mr.  Gibbes  explained  that  it  was 
the  knowledge  which  this  document  seemed  to  display 
of  the  Tichborne  estates  and  family  which  induced  him 
to  advance  money,  and  that  the  Dowager  Lady  Tich- 
borne's  letters  being  merely  signed  "  H.  F.  Tichborne," 
he  had  inserted  the  Christian  names,  "  Hannah  Frances," 
on  the  authority  of  his  client.  Lastly,  Mr.  Mackenzie 
learnt  that  there  had  been  a  butcher  in  Wagga-Wagga 
named  Schottler,  and  that  Higgins's  slaughterman,  known 
as  Tom  Castro,  had  once  told  some  one  that  he  had 
known  Schottler's  family,  and  lived  very  near  their 
house  when  he  was  a  boy.  Schottler  had  disappeared, 
but  he  was  believed  to  have  originally  come  from  Lon- 
don. This  information  was  slight,  but  it  appeared  to  the 
shrewd  Mr.  Mackenzie  to  be  valuable.  If  the  Schottlers 
were  known  to  Tom  Castro  as  neighbors  when  he  was  a 
boy  in  London,  it  would  seem  to  be  only  necessary  to 
find  the  Schottler  family  in  order  to  discover  who  the 
Claimant  to  the  Tichborne  estates  really  was. 

London,  it  is  true,  is  a  large  place,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  "  Schottler  "  is  not  so  common  a  name  as  Smith 
or  Jones.  When  these  important  facts  were  forwarded 
to  the  solicitor  to  the  defendants  in  the  Chancery  suits, 
he  obtained  old  directories  of  London,  and  discovered 
that  there  was  one  Schottler,  who  had  kept  a  public 
house  called  The  Ship  and  Punchbowl,  in  High  Street, 
Wapping.  In  that  direction,  therefore,  inquiries  were 
instituted.  The  Schottlers  had,  it  was  found,  gone  and 
left  no  trace,  but  it  was  easy  to  instruct  Detective 
Whicher  to  inquire  after  old  neighbors,  to  show  them  a 
portrait  of  the  Claimant,  and  to  ask  if  any  one  in  that 
locality  recognized  the  features. 

At   last   the   gentleman   prosecuting   these    inquiries 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  69 

found  himself  in  the  Globe  public-house  near  by,  the 
landlady  of  which  hostelry  at  once  declared  the  carte  de 
visite  to  be  a  portrait  of  a  mysterious  individual  of  huge 
bulk  who  had  visited  her  on  the  night  of  the  previous 
Christmas  Day,  stayed  an  hour  in  her  parlor,  and  made 
numerous  inquiries  after  old  inhabitants  of  Wapping. 
His  inquiries  included  the  Schottlers,  and  he  had  par- 
ticularly wanted  the  address  of  the  family  of  the  late 
Mr,  George  Orton,  a  butcher,  in  the  High  Street,  who 
answered  the  description  of  an  old  "  neighbor  of  the 
Schottlers."  The  Christmas  Day  referred  to  was  the 
very  day  of  the  Claimant's  arrival  in  England,  and  the 
landlady  of  the  Globe  was  positive  that  the  portrait  re- 
presented her  visitor,  whoever  he  might  have  been. 
Moreover,  she  informed  the  gentleman  that,  struck 
by  his  inquiries  after  the  Ortons,  she  had  scanned  her 
mysterious  visitor's  features  closely,  and  observed, 
"  Why  you  must  be  an  Orton,  you  are  very  like  the  old 
gentleman." 

Three  daughters  of  old  George  Orton  were  then  applied 
to,  but  they  declared  that  the  portrait  had  no  resem- 
blance to  any  brother  of  theirs.  Neighbors,  however, 
had  perceived  that  these  persons,  who  had  been  extremely 
poor,  had  suddenly  shown  signs  of  greatly  improved  cir- 
cumstances. Further  inquiry  led  to  the  discovery  that 
they  had  a  brother  named  Charles,  "a  humpbacked 
man,"  who  had  been  a  butcher  in  a  small  way  in  part- 
nership with  a  Mr.  Woodgate,  in  Hermitage  street,  Wap- 
ping. He  had  recently  dissolved  partnership  rather  sud- 
denly, but  he  had  previously  confided  to  Mr.  Woodgate 
the  curious  information  that  he  had  a  brother  just  come 
home  from  Australia  who  was  entitled  to  great  property, 
and  who  had  promised  him  an  allowance  of  "^5  a  month," 
and  ;)^2,ooo  "  when  he  got  his  estates."  When,  after 
some  trouble,  Charles  Orton  was  discovered,  he  showed 


70  MEMORIES     OF 

signs  of  being  disposed  to  explain  the  mystery  "if  the 
soh'citors  "  would  promptly  "  make  it  worth  his  while," 
but  in  the  very  midst  of  the  inquiry  he  suddenly  van- 
ished from  the  neighborhood,  and  for  a  long  while  all 
trace  of  him  was  lost. 

Meanwhile,  the  Claimant  had,  by  some  mysterious 
means,  instantly  become  aware  that  these  inquiries  were 
in  progress,  for  he  wrote  at  this  period  to  his  confidential 
friend  Rous,  the  landlord  of  the  Swan,  as  follows  : — "  We 
find  the  other  side  very  busy  with  another  pair  of  sisters 
for  me.  They  say  I  was  born  in  Waping.  I  never 
remember  having  been  there,  but  Mr.  Holmes  tells  me  it 
a  very  respectiabel  part  of  London."  Shortly  afterwards 
two  out  of  the  three  daugters  of  old  Mr.  Orton  made 
affidavit  that  the  Claimant  was  not  their  brother,  nor 
any  relation  of  theirs ;  the  other  sister  and  Charles  Orton, 
however,  made  no  affidavit.  Four  years  later  the  Claim- 
ant confessed  that  he  was,  after  all,  the  mysterious  visi- 
tor at  the  Globe  public-house  on  that  Christmas-eve  ; 
that  he  shortly  afterwards  entered  into  secret  corres- 
pondence and  transactions  with  the  Orton  family ;  that 
he  gave  the  sisters  money  whenever  they  wrote  to  say 
they  were  in  want  of  any ;  and  that  after  the  period 
when  Charles  Orton  was  solicited  to  give  information  to 
"  the  other  side,"  he  allowed  him  ^5  a  month — Charles 
Orton,  who  was  then  in  concealment,  being  addressed 
in  their  correspondence  by  the  assumed  name  of 
"  Brand."  The  Claimant's  explanation  of  these  relations 
with  the  Orton  family,  which  he  at  first  denied,  was  that 
their  brother,  Arthur  Orton,  had  been  a  great  friend  of 
his  for  many  years,  and  in  various  parts  of  Australia,  and 
that  hence  he  was  desirous  of  assisting  his  family.  At 
one  time  he  said  that  his  object  was  to  ascertain  if  his 
friend,  Arthur  Orton,  had  arrived  in  England  ;  at  another 
he  stated,  on  oath,  that  when  he  sailed  from  Australia  he 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.     .  71 

left  Arthur  Orton  there.  The  soHcitors  for  the  defendants 
in  the  great  Chancery  suit,  however,  did  not  hesitate  to 
declare  their  conviction  that  the  pretended  Roger  Tich- 
borne  was  no  other  than  Arthur  Orton,  youngest  son 
of  the  late  George  Orton,  butcher,  of  High  street,  Wap- 
ping ;  that  his  visit  to  Wapping  on  the  very  night  of  his 
arrival  was  prompted  by  curiosity  to  know  the  position 
of  his  family,  of  whom  he  had  not  heard  for  some  years; 
and  that  his  stealthy  transactions  with  the  three  sisters, 
and  with  the  brother  of  Arthur  Orton,  had  no  object  but 
that  of  furnishing  them  with  an  inducement  to  keep  the 
dangerous  secret  of  his  true  name  and  origin. 

Meanwhile  no  token  of  these  charges  reached  the  ears 
of  the  Dowager  Lady  Tichborne  ;  but  it  is  obvious  that 
they  could  not  long  be  concealed.  Possibly,  for  this 
reason,  the  Claimant  at  last  apprised  her  that  "  the 
other  side"  were  trying  to  make  out  that  he  was  ''not 
himself,  but  a  person  of  the  name  of  '  Horton.'  "  He 
was  careful,  however,  to  add  that  he  had  been  seen  by 
people  who  had  known  the  man  referred  to,  and  that 
these  had  declared  that  he  was  not  the  same.  Whether 
the  Dowager's  faith  would  have  been  shaken  if  her  sup- 
posed son  had  confessed  that  while  she  was  anxiously 
expecting  the  wanderer  so  long  mourned  for  he  was 
making  in  Wapping  minute  inquiries  not  for  "  Hortons" 
but  for  "  Ortons,"  who  shall  say?  It  is  certain  that  at 
the  very  moment  of  writing  this  letter  her  correspond- 
ent was  secretly  allowing  money  to  the  sisters  of  the 
same  man ;  while  he  was  keeping  the  brother,  who  had 
shown  a  tendency  to  give  information  to  "  the  other 
side,"  in  concealment  far  away  from  his  old  Wapping 
haunts,  and  regularly  sending  him  £'^  per  month.  It 
has  been  said  that  all  this  while  he  pretended  to  his 
friend,  Mr.  Rous,  to  know  nothing  about  Wapping,  which 
he  spelt  "Waping,"  except  that   his   attorney  had   in- 


72  MEMORIES     OF 

formed  him  that  it  was  "  a  very  respectiabel  place,"  It 
may,  therefore,  be  assumed  that  he  was  not  more  com- 
municative with  Lady  Tichborne.  Perhaps,  however, 
the  caution  was  needless. 

The  poor  old  lady  had  lived  for  some  time  in  the 
house  at  Croydon  with  her  supposed  son  and  his  wife, 
who  appears  by  a  letter  of  the  Claimant  to  have  spent 
much  of  her  time  in  "  fighting  with  the  cook."  A  serv- 
ant-maid in  that  household  has  told  how  she  heard  the 
Dowager  sometimes  say,  "  They  must  have  been  savages, 
out  in  Australia  to  change  my  son  so,  and  make  him  so 
rough  ;"  and  it  has  been  hinted  that  the  poor  lady  was 
troubled  with  doubts  about  his  identity.  But  the  evi- 
dence that  her  faith  was  proof  against  all  assaults  is  over- 
whelming. It  had  never  been  alleged  that  her  failings 
went  beyond  eccentric  self-will  and  irritability  of  temper  ; 
and  her  faults  as  a  mother,  great  as  they  were,  were 
summed  up  in  an  excessive  solicitude,  which  amounted 
in  appearance  almost  to  a  disease  of  the  mind.  Could  it 
be  true  that  this  lady  was  consciously  conniving  at  an 
attempt  to  plunder  the  child  of  her  "  beloved  son  Al- 
fred ;"  and  to  place  an  illiterate  Australian  butcher  at 
the  head  of  the  ancient  Tichborne  family  ?  The  pro- 
ject, if  this  man  were  an  impostor,  was  too  wild  to  be 
entertained,  save  in  a  brain  so  disordered  that  it  well 
might  justify  a  more  charitable  assumption.  Some  have 
lent  an  ear  to  the  cruel  suggestions  that  now  her  hus- 
band and  her  sons  were  dead,  and  there  was  a  litte  infant 
of  whom  she  knew  nothing,  whose  frail  life  alone  stood 
in  the  way  of  the  succession  of  remote  connections.  Lady 
Tichborne  may  have  conceived  the  idea  of  a  sort  of 
partnership  in  a  gigantic  scheme  of  fraud  and  imposition^ 
It  is  true  that  it  would  be  easy  to  find  arguments  and 
facts  in  support  of  these  suggestions.  There  was,  for 
example,    her   fixed    idea   that    her   "  son "    in    Wagga- 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  73 

Wagga  had  only  to  come  to  her  and  be  recognized,  and 
forthwith  the  estates  would  be  his.  There  is  her  allu- 
sion to  the  necessity  of  guarding  against  the  opposition 
of  "  collaterals,"  and  among  the  Claimant's  letters  to  her 
are  allusions  to  the  fine  residence  which  she  should  have 
— a  part  of  the  Tichborne  property — as  soon  as  he  got 
*'  his  estates."  But  people  who  have  listened  to  these 
notions  must  have  forgotten  the  numerous  manifesta- 
tations  in  those  letters  to  Lady  Tichborne  of  anxiety  to 
conceal  from  her  any  circumstances  calculated  to  cast 
doubt  upon  his  identity,  not  to  speak  of  the  affecta- 
tion of  piety  in  such  phrases  as  "May  God  in  His 
great  mercy  forgive  these  poor  pergered  sailors," 
and  again,  "  If  I  lose  my  estates  I  shall  be  re- 
warded in  Heaven,"  which  are  no  less  inconsistent 
with  the  supposition  of  a  mutual  consciousness  of  fraud 
and  deception.  Above  all  they  must  have  forgotten 
that  her  crazy  search  after  a  lost  son  began  while 
her  own  husband  was  in  possession  ;  and  that  it  was 
while  he  lay  dead,  and  her  "  beloved  Alfred  "  was  in- 
stalled at  Tichborne  with  his  newly-married  wife,  that 
she  inserted  those  dangerous  advertisements,  virtually 
soliciting  impostors  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  come 
forward  and  challenge  the  rights  of  her  own  child — 
perhaps  to  ruin  him  with  tedious  litigation.  The  ad- 
vertisements, while  Sir  Alfred  still  lived,  were  but  the 
continuation  of  the  dreams  which  had  been  nourished 
by  the  tramping  sailors  whom  her  husband  had  sought 
in  vain  to  keep  out  of  Tichborne  park;  the  welcoming 
home  of  the  man  who  adopted  all  the  tramping  sailors' 
heartless  fictions  was  but  the  final  realization  of  that 
unshaken  faith  that  had  possessed  her  mind  for  thirteen 
long  years. 

Thus  it  was  that  friends  and  relatives  reasoned  with 
her,  and  even  told  her  that  her  supposed  son  had  been 


74  MEMORIES     OF 

discovered  to  be  the  son  of  Orton,  a  butcher,  at  Wap- 
ping  ;  but  in  vain.  Those  who  would  not  believe  and 
aid  her  in  restoring  her  ''  dear  son  Roger  "  to  his  birth- 
right were  enemies,  against  whom  her  doors  were 
quickly  shut.  There  is  something  terrible  in  the  story 
of  the  poor  lady's  situation,  standing  as  she  did  alone, 
and  in  opposition  to  the  whole  of  the  large  circle  of 
relatives  of  Roger  Tichborne,  who  had  known  him  so 
well.  The  Abbe  Toursel,  an  old  friend  of  Sir  James 
and  Lady  Tichborne,  has  told,  in  the  witness-box,  an 
affecting  story  of  how,  one  day,  shortly  before  her  death, 
she  came  to  him  at  his  house  in  London,  all  alone,  and 
looking  so  pale,  and  wasted,  and  careworn,  that  his  heart 
was  touched.  She  had,  it  was  true,  complaints  to  make 
of  her  son.  She  said  that  he  squandered  her  substance  ; 
the  expense  was  torture  to  her,  and  she  had  tried  to 
put  him  on  a  fixed  allowance.  She  was  then  indeed  in 
hopeless  embarrassment.  Only  fourteen  months  elapsed 
since  the  supposed  son  had  come  home,  and  since  she 
had  promised  him  a  thousand  a  year  for  personal  ex- 
penses. She  was,  at  that  period,  certainly  in  possession 
of  an  income  of  more  than  twice  that  amount,  but  the 
profligate  waste  of  the  Croydon  household,  and  the 
enormous  expense  of  the  system  of  getting  up  "  evi- 
dence "  and  prosecuting  law  proceedings,  had,  in  that 
short  space  of  time,  absorbed  all  her  means.  She  was 
in  the  hands  of  rogues  and  disreputable  money  lenders, 
and  was  absolutely  borrowing  funds  at  the  interest  of 
fifty  per  cent.  The  old  fable  of  the  pelican  could 
scarcely  match  her  self-inflicted  pain  and  privation 
Concerning  all  this,  however,  she  confided  very  little  to 
her  friend,  but  she  said  she  was  very  uneasy,  that  she 
could  not  live  in  the  house  at  Croydon  with  her  son  by 
reason  of  the  multitude  of  strange  and  noisy  people  who 
haunted  it,  with  discharged   private    soldiers    living    in 


WESTMINSTER    HALL. 


75 


the  attics  and  the  basement.  The  old  lady  being  more 
familiar  with  French  than  English  would  probably  have 
but  a  dim  conception  of  their  talk  and  their  proceed- 
ings, but  she  was  conscious  of  the  fumes  of  tobacco 
and  strong  drink,  and  the  tumult  distressed  her.  Thus 
she  was  friendless  and  wretched,  and  in  sore  need  of 
guidance  and  consolation.  Yet  she  rejected  the  prof- 
fered aid  of  the  venerable  Abbe,  who  exhorted  her  to 
have  a  meeting  of  her  relations,  and  there  subject  het 
supposed  son  to  rational  tests  of  his  identity.  The 
Abbe  Toursel  even  offered  to  preside  at  such  meeting, 
and  see  that  it  was  conducted  with  fairness.  But  all  in 
vain.  The  poor,  weak,  trembling,  friendless  woman 
clung  to  her  fond  belief.  "  No,  no,  he  is  Roger.  They 
would  quarrel,  and  want  to  deprive  me  of  him."  This 
was  the  only  answer  he  could  get  as  he  followed  her  to 
the  threshold  of  the  door,  saw  her  feebly  walking  in  the 
bleak  March  wind,  and  watched  her  till  she  turned  a 
corner,  fearing  that  she  would  drop  exhausted  to  the 
ground. 

Only  a  few  days  later — on  the  12th  of  March,  1868— 
the  Dowager  Lady  Tichborne  was  found  by  a  servant 
dead  in  a  chair,  and  with  no  relative  or  friend  at  hand, 
in  a  hotel  near  Portman  Square,  where  she  had  sought 
and  found  a  shelter. 

Amidst  much  that  was  vague  in  the  Claimant's  ac- 
count of  his  past  life,  there  were,  at  all  events,  two 
statements  of  a  precise  and  definite  character.  These 
were,  first,  that  he  had  been  at  Melipilla,  in  Chili,  and 
had  there  known  intimately  a  man  named  Thomas 
Castro,  whose  name  he  had  afterwards  assumed  ;  and 
secondly,  that  in  1854,  he  had  been  engaged  as  herds- 
man to  Mr.  William  Foster,  of  Boisdale,  in  Gippsland, 
Australia.  If  he  were  an  imposter,  these  statements 
were    undoubtedly   imprudent.     But    they   served    the 


76  MEMORIES     OF 

purpose  of  establishing  the  identity  of  his  career  with 
that  of  the  man  wliom  he  claimed  to  be,  for  Roger  Tich- 
borne  had,  undoubtedly,  traveled  in  Chili  ;  and,  accord- 
ing at  least  to  the  tramping  sailors'  story,  embodied 
in  the  Dowager's  advertisements,  he  had  been  carried 
thence  to  Australia.  The  importance  attached  by  his 
supporters  to  these  apparent  tokens  of  identity  suffi- 
ciently explains  the  Claimant's  explicitness  on  these 
points.  Melipilla  is  a  long  way  off;  and  Boisdale  is  still 
further.  It  may  have  been  supposed  that  witnesses 
could  not  be  brought  from  so  far;  but  vast  interests 
were  at  stake,  and  the  defendant  in  the  Chancery  suit 
speedily  applied  for  Commissions  to  go  out  to  South 
America  and  Australia  to  collect  information  regarding 
the  Claimant's  past  history.  The  proposition  was 
strenuously  opposed  as  vexatious,  and  designed  merely 
to  create  delay,  but  the  Court  granted  the  application. 
Then  the  Claimant  asked  for  an  adjourment  on  the 
ground  that  he  intended  to  go  out  and  confront  the 
Melipilla  folks,  including  his  intimate  friend  Don  Tomas 
Castro,  before  the  Commission  ;  and  also  to  accompany 
it  to  Australia.  The  postponement  was  granted,  a  large 
sum  was  raised  to  defray  his  expenses,  and  he  finally 
started  with  the  Commission,  accompanied  by  counsel 
and  solicitors,  bound  for  Valparaiso  and  Melipilla,  and 
finally  for  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales.  When  the 
vessel,  however,  arrived  at  Rio,  the  Claimant  went 
ashore,  declaring  that  he  preferred  to  go  thence  to  Meli- 
pilla overland.  But  he  never  presented  himself  at  that 
place,  and  finally  the  Commission  proceeded  to  examine 
witnesses  and  to  record  their  testimony,  which  thus  be- 
came part  of  the  evidence  in  the  suit.  The  Claimant 
had,  in  fact,  re-embarked  at  Rio  for  England,  having, 
abandoned  the  whole  project ;  for  which  strange  conduct 
he  made  various  and  conflicting  excuses. 


WESTMINSTER     HALL.  77 

Even  before  he  had  started,  circumstances  had  occurred 
which  had  induced  some  of  his  supporters  to  express 
doubts  whether  he  would  ever  go  to  Melipilla.  The 
facts  were  these.  When  the  going  out  of  the  Commis- 
sion had  become  inevitable,  the  Claimant  had  written  a 
letter  to  his  "  esteemed  friend,  Don  Tomas  Castro,"  re- 
minding him  of  past  acquaintance  in  1853,  sending  kind 
remembrances  to  a  number  of  friends,  and  altogether 
mentioning  at  least  sixteen  persons  with  Spanish  names 
whom  he  had  known  there.  The  purpose  of  the  letter 
was  to  inform  Don  Tomas  that  he  had  returned  to  Eng- 
land ;  was  claiming  "  magnificent  lands,"  and,  in  brief, 
to  prepare  his  whole  acquaintances  to  befriend  him 
there.  This  letter  was  answered  by  Castro,  through 
his  son  Pedro,  with  numerous  good  wishes  and 
much  gossip  about  Melipilla  and  what  had  become 
of  the  old  circle.  But  to  the  astonishment  and 
dismay  of  the  Claimant's  attorney,  Mr.  Holmes,  Pedro 
Castro  reminded  his  old  correspondent  that  when  among 
them  he  had  gone  by  the  name  of  Arthur  Orton.  A 
Melipilla  lady  named  Ahumada  then  sent  a  portion  of  a 
lock  of  hair  which  the  Claimant  acknowledged  as  his 
own  hair,  and  thanked  her  for.  But  this  lady  declared 
that  she  had  cut  the  lock  from  the  head  of  an  English 
lad  named  Arthur  Orton  ;  and  the  Claimant  thereupon 
said  that  he  must  have  been  mistaken  in  thanking  her 
and  acknowledging  it  as  his.  In  the  town  of  Melipilla 
— sixty  or  seventy  miles  inland  from  Valparaiso — every 
one  of  the  sixteen  or  seventeen  persons  mentioned  by 
the  Claimant  as  old  acquaintances — except  those  who 
were  dead  or  gone  away — came  before  the  Commission, 
and  were  examined,  They  proved  to  have  substantially 
but  one  tale  to  tell.  They  said  they  never  knew  any 
one  of  the  name  of  Tichborne.  Melipilla  is  a  remote 
little  town,   far  off  the  great   high  road,  and  the  only 


78  MEMORIES     OF 

English  person,  except  an  English  doctor,  there  estab- 
lished, who  had  ever  sojourned  there  was  a  sailor  lad, 
who,  not  in  1853,  but  in  1849,  came  to  them  destitute; 
was  kindly  treated ;  picked  up  Spanish  enough  to  con- 
verse in  an  illiterate  way ;  said  his  name  was  Arthur, 
and  was  always  called  Arthur  by  them  ;  declared  his 
father  was  "a  butcher  named  Orton,  who  served  the 
Queen ;  "  and  said  he  had  been  sent  to  sea  to  cure  St. 
Vitus's  Dance,  but  had  been  ill-used  by  the  captain,  and 
ran  away  from  his  ship  at  Valparaiso.  This  lad,  they 
stated,  sojourned  in  Melipilla  eighteen  months,  and 
finally  went  back  to  Valparaiso  and  re-embarked  for 
England.  Don  Tomaso  Castro,  the  doctor's  wife,  and 
others,  declared  they  recognized  the  features  of  this  lad 
in  the  portrait  of  the  Claimant  ;  and  being  shown  two 
daguerreotype  portraits  of  Roger  Tichborne,  taken  in 
Chili  when  he  was  there,  said  that  the  features  were  not 
like  those  of  any  person  they  had  ever  known.  Searches 
were  then  made  in  the  record's  of  the  consul's  office  at 
Valparaiso,  from  which  it  resulted  that  a  sailor  named 
Arthur  Orton  did  desert  from  the  English  ship  Ocean 
in  that  port  at  the  very  date  mentioned,  and  did  re-em- 
bark, though  under  the  name  of  "  Joseph  M.  Orton, '^ 
about  eighteen  months  later. 

Boisdale,  in  Australia,  whither  the  Commission  then 
repaired,  is  many  thousands  of  miles  from  South  America, 
but  here  similar  discoveries  were  made.  Mr.  William 
Foster,  the  extensive  cattle  farmer,  was  dead,  but  the 
widow  still  managed  his  large  property.  In  reference  to 
the  Claimant's  statement  that  in  July,  1854,  the  very 
day  after  he  was  landed  by  the  vessel  which  he  believed 
was  named  the  Osprey,  at  Melbourne,  he  was  engaged 
by  Mr.  William  Foster,  and  went  with  him  at  once  to 
Gippsland,  under  the  assumed  name  of  Thomas  Castro, 
the   lady  declared   that   her  husband   did  not   settle  at 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  79 

Boisdale,  or  have  anything  to  do  with  that  property  till 
two  years  later  than  that  date,  and  that  they  never  had 
any  herdsman  named  Thomas  Castro.  The  ledgers  and 
other  account  books  of  Mr.  Foster  were  then  examined, 
but  no  mention  of  any  Castro,  either  in  1854  or  at  any 
other  time,  could  be  found.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
were  numerous  entries,  extending  over  the  two  years 
1857  and  1858,  of  wages  paid  and  rations  served  out  to  a 
herdsman  named  Arthur  Orton,  whom  the  lady  perfectly 
well  remembered,  and  who  had  come  to  them  from  Ho- 
bart  Town. 

All  these  discoveries  were  confirmed  by  the  registers 
of  shipping,  which  showed  that  Arthur  Orton  embarked 
for  Valparaiso  in  1848,  re-embarked  for  London  in  1851, 
and  sailed  again  for  Hobart  Town  in  the  following  year. 
But  there  were  other  significant  circumstances.  The 
ship  in  which  Arthur  Orton  had  returned  from  Valpa- 
raiso was  called  the  Jessie  Miller,  which  was  the  very 
name  which  the  Claimant,  in  his  solemn  declaration, 
prepared  by  Mr.  Gibbes,  gave  as  the  name  of  the  vessel 
in  which  he  came  out  to  Australia.  In  the  same  docu- 
ment he  had  stated  the  date  of  his  sailing  from  England 
as  the  "28th  of  November,  1852,"  and  this  was  now  dis- 
covered to  be  the  very  day,  month,  and  year,  on  which 
Arthur  Orton  embarked  in  the  vessel  bound  for  Hobart 
Town.  Mr.  Foster's  widow  had  specimens  of  Arthur 
Orton's  writing,  and  other  mementoes  of  his  two  years' 
service  among  them,  and  she  unhesitatingly  identified  a 
portrait  of  the  Claimant  as  that  of  the  same  man. 
Numerous  other  important  discoveries  were  made  in 
Australia,  and,  among  other  witnesses,  a  farmer  named 
Hopwood  deposed,  that  he  had  known  Arthur  Orton  at 
Boisdale,  under  that  name,  and  again,  at  Wagga-Wagga, 
under  his  assumed  name  of  Thomas  Castro.  At  Wagga- 
Wagga,     the     will      executed     by    the    Claimant,    and 


8o  MEMORIES     OF 

already  referred  to,  wfis  produced,  and  it  was  found,  that 
amidst  all  its  fictitious  names,  and  imaginary  Tichborne 
estates,  it  appointed  as  trustees  two  gentlemen  residing  in 
Dorsetshire,  England,  who  have  since  been  discovered 
to  have  been  intimate  friends  of  old  Mr.  Orton,  the 
butcher.  The  testimony  on  the  Claimant's  behalf,  be- 
fore the  Commission,  threw  but  little  light.  It  con- 
sisted, chiefly,  of  vague  stories  of  his  having  spoken, 
when  in  Australia,  of  being  entitled  to  large  possessions, 
and  of  having  beert  an  officer  in  the  army,  and  stationed 
in  Ireland.  Such  testimony  could,  of  course,  have  little 
weight  against  the  statements  of  the  Claimant,  in 
writing,  made  just  before  embarking  at  Sydney,  with  a 
view  of  satisfying  capitalists  of  his  identity,  and  betray- 
ing total  ignorance  of  Roger  Tichborne's  military  life. 

It  was  while  the  Claimant  was  absent  on  his  abortive 
journey  to  Melipilla  that  Charles  Orton,  the  brother  of 
Arthur,  finally  called  upon  the  solicitors  for  "  the  other 
side,"  and  volunteered  to  give  information.  In  the 
presence  of  Lord  Arundell  and  other  witnesses,  this 
man  then  stated  that  the  Claimant  of  the  Tichborne 
estates  was  his  brother  Arthur,  that  he  had  been  induced 
by  him  to  change  his  name  to  Brand,  and  to  remain  in 
concealment,  that  in  return  the  Claimant  had  allowed 
him  ^5  per  month  ;  but  that  since  his  departure  for 
Chili  the  allowance  had  ceased.  Letters  of  Charles 
Orton  to  the  Claimant's  wife,  and  asking  whether  "  Sir 
Roger  Tichborne,  before  he  went  away,  left  anything 
for  a  party  of  the  name  of  Brand,"  have  been  found  and 
published.  In  the  face  of  the  evidence,  the  Claimant 
has  since  acknowledged  that  he  did  correspond  with 
Charles,  under  the  name  of  Brand,  and  did  allow  him 
that  monthly  sum. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  Claimant's  attorney, 
Mr.  Holmes,  finally  withdrew  from  the  case,   and    the 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  8r 

county  gentlemen,  who,  relying  in  great  measure  on 
Lady  Tichborne's  recognition  and  the  numerous  affi- 
davits that  had  been  made,  had  supported  the  Claimant, 
held  a  meeting  at  the  Swan,  at  Alresford,  at  which, 
among  other  documents,  certain  mysterious  letters  to 
the  Orton  sisters  were  produced.  These  letters  were 
signed,  "W.  H.  Stephens,"  and  they  contained  inquiries 
after  the  Orton  family  and  also  after  Miss  Mary  Anne 
Loader,  who  was  an  old  sweetheart  of  Arthur  Orton's, 
long  resident  in  Wapping.  They  inclosed  as  portraits 
of  Arthur  Orton's  wife  and  child,  certain  carte-de-visite 
likenesses  which  were  clearly  portraits  of  the  Claimant's 
•wife  and  child  ;  and  though  they  purported  to  be  written 
by  "  W.  H.  Stephens,"  a  friend  of  Arthur  Orton,  just 
arrived  from  Australia,  it  was  suspected  that  the  letters 
— which  were  evidently  in  a  feigned  hand — were  really 
written  by  the  Claimant.  They  manifested  that  desire 
for  information  about  Wapping  folks,  and  particularly 
the  Ortons,  which  the  Claimant  was  known  to  have  ex- 
hibited on  more  occasions  than  one ;  and  they  indi- 
cated a  wish  to  get  this  information  by  a  ruse,  and  with- 
out permitting  the  writer  to  be  seen.  But  the  corre- 
spondence showed  that  the  sisters  of  Orton  had  dis- 
covered, or  at  least  believed  that  they  had  discovered, 
that  the  writer  was  in  truth  their  brother  Arthur.  The 
Claimant,  however,  being  called  in  and  questioned, 
solemnly  affirmed  that  the  letters  were  "  forgeries," 
designed  by  his  enemies  to  "  ruin  his  cause."  Nor  was 
it  till  he  was  pressed  in  cross-examination,  three  years 
later,  that  he  reluctantly  confessed  that  his  charges  of 
forgery  were  false  ;  and  that  in  fact  he  and  no  one  else, 
had  written  the  Stephens'  letters.  Among  our  fac- 
similes of  autographs  the  reader  will  find  a  letter  signed 
Arthur  Orton,  and  dated  Wagga-Wagga,  N.  S.  W.,  June 
3rd,  1866,  which  was  forwarded  to  the  Orton  sisters  by 
II.— 6 


82  MEMORIES     OF 

the  Claimant,  at  the  same  time,  manifestly  with  a  view 
to  induce  them  to  confide,  by  way  of  letter,  in  the  ficti- 
tious Stephens.  It  may  be  presumed  that  the  writing- 
was  expected  to  be  recognized  by  them  as  an  improved 
specimen  from  the  same  hand  that  penned  the  letter 
from  "  Torkeye  "  to  Miss  Loader  (also  among  our  fac- 
similes) fourteen  years  before  ;  and  it  will  be  observed 
that  it  bears  beneath  the  signature  the  same  peculiar 
private  mark.  The  reader  has  in  those  facsimiles  the 
means  of  judging  for  himself  whether  that  letter  is  not 
identical  in  handwriting  with  the  letter  beginning  "  My 
dear  Mama,"  dated  "  Sydney,  July  24th,  '66,''  and  signed 
"  Roger  Charles  Tichborne."  These,  however,  were 
later  disclosures.  The  Claimant's  solemn  assurances 
did  not  convince  all  his  supporters  at  the  meeting  at 
the  Swan,  but  they  satisfied  some  ;  and  funds  were  still 
found  for  prosecuting  the  Chancery  suit,  which  finally 
resulted  in  that  great  trial  at  Common  Law  that  filled 
so  large  a  space  in  the  public  journals. 

The  suit  was  technically  an  action  for  the  purpose  of 
ejecting  Col.  Lushington  from  Tichborne  House,  which 
had  been  let  to  him.  Col.  Lushington  was  then  a  sup- 
porter of  the  Claimant,  and  had  not  the  least  objection 
to  be  ejected.  But  the  action  at  once  raised  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  Claimant  had  a  right  to  eject  him. 
Of  course  that  depended  on  whether  he  was,  or  was  not, 
identical  with  the  young  man  who  was  so  long  believed 
to  have  perished  in  the  Bella,  and  accordingly  this  was 
the  issue  that  the  jury  had  to  try. 

The  case  of  the  Defendants  had  been  prepared  with 
great  labor  and  expense  by  Mr.  Frederick  Bowker,  of 
Winchester,  the  solicitor  to  the  family;  while  the 
Claimant's  cause  was  undertaken  by  the  respectable 
firm  of  Baxter,  Rose,  and  Norton.  For  the  Claimant's 
side  Mr.  Serjeant  Ballantine  and  Mr.  Giffard  had  been 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  83 

retained;  on  the  side  of  the  Defendants  was  Sir  John 
Coleridge,  then  Solicitor  General,  supported  by  Mr. 
Hawkins.  It  was  on  Thursday,  the  nth  of  May,  187 1, 
that  Sergeant  Ballatine  rose  to  address  the  jury  ;  but 
owing  to  frequent  adjournments,  it  was  not  until  the 
6th  of  March,  1872,  that  the  trial  was  concluded — the 
proceedings  having  extended  to  103  days.  On  the 
Claimant's  side  a  large  number  of  witnesses  were  ex- 
amined, many  being  persons  of  respectability,  while 
some  were  of  high  station.  The  military  witnesses 
were  very  numerous ;  and  among  them  were  five  of 
Roger  Tichborne's  old  brother  officers,  the  rest  being 
sergeants,  corporals,  and  privates.  There  were  Aus- 
tralian witnesses,  and  medical  witnesses,  old  servants, 
and  tenants  of  the  Tichborne  family,  and  numerous 
other  persons.  With  the  exception  of  two  remote  con- 
nections, however  no  members  of  the  numerous  families 
of  Tichborne  and  Seymour  presented  themselves  to 
support  the  Plaintiff's  claims ;  and  even  the  two  gentle- 
men referred  to  admitted  that  their  acquaintance  with 
Roger  was  slight,  and  that  it  was  in  his  youth  ;  and 
finally  that  they  had  not  recognized  the  features  of  the 
Claimant,  but  had  merely  inferred  his  identity  from 
some  circumstances  he  had  been  able  to  mention.  The 
same  observation,  indeed,  applied  to  a  very  large  number 
of  the  witnesses.  The  plaintiff's  case  was  almost  entirely 
unsupported  by  documentary  evidence,  and  it  rested  in 
fact  chiefly  on  the  impressions  or  the  memory  of  wit- 
nesses, or  on  their  conclusions  drawn  from  circumstances 
which,  when  they  were  inquired  into,  in  cross-examin- 
ation, proved  to  be  altogether  insufficient. 

The  cross-examination  of  the  Claimant  himself,  how- 
ever, was  really  the  turning  point  of  the  civil  trial.  It 
extended  over  twenty-seven  days,  and  embraced  the 
whole  history    of   Roger   Tichborne's    life,  his   all-'tjed 


S4  MEMORIES     OF 

resc'.e  and    carrying    to    Melbourne,    the    life    of  the 
Claimant  in  Australia,  and  his  subsequent  proceedings 
since  his  return.     Besides  this,  matters  connected  with 
the  Orton   case  were  inquired   into.     The  drift  of  much 
of  the  questioning  of  Sir  John  Coleridge  was  necessarily 
not  apparent  at  the  time,  nor  was  it  known  to  the  public 
to  what  extent  the  Claimant  had  betrayed   ignorance  of 
the  career,  the  habits,  and  the   connections  of  the  man 
he  claimed  to   be.     Much,  however,  that  was  calculated 
to   alarm   supporters  was   elicited.     The  Claimant   was 
compelled  to  admit  that  he  had  no  confirmation  to  offer 
of  his  strange  story  of  the  rescue,  and  that  he  could  pro- 
duce no  survivor  of  the  Osprcy  nor  any  one  of  the  crew 
of  the  Bella  alleged  to    have  been    rescued   with    him. 
The  mere  existence  of  such  a  vessel  was  not  evidenced 
by  any  shipping  register,  or  gazette,  or  Custom  House 
record.     It  was  moreover  admitted  that  he  had  changed 
his  story — had   for  a  whole  year  given  up  the  Osprey. 
and  said  the  vessel  was  the  Themis,  and  finally  returned 
to  the  Osprey  again.     All  the  strange  circumstances  of 
the  Wagga-Wagga  will,  the   Gibbes  and  Cubitt  corres- 
pondence, the  furtive  transactions  with  the  Orton  family, 
the  curious  revelations   of  the    commissions   in    South 
America  and  Australia,  were  acknowledged,  and   either 
left    unexplained    or    explained    in   a    way  which   was 
evasive,  inconsistent,  and  contradictory.     His  accounts 
of  his  relations  with  Arthur  Orton  were  also  vague,  and 
his  attempts  to    support  his  assertion  that  Castro  and 
Orton  were  not  one  and  the  same,  but  different  persons, 
were   unsatisfactory,  while,  by   his  own    confession,   his 
habitual  associates  in  Austraha  had  been  highway  rob- 
bers and  other  persons  of  the  vilest  class.     With  regard 
to  his  life  in  Paris  he  admitted  that  his  mind  was  *'  a 
blank,"  and  he  confessed  that  he  could  not  read  a  line 
of  Roger  Tichborne's  letters  in  French.     He  gave  an- 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  85 

swers  which  evidenced   gross  ignorance  on  all  the  mat- 
ters which  Roger  Tichborne's  letters  and  other  evidence 
showed  that  he  had  studied.     He  said   he  did   not  think 
Euclid  was  connected  with  mathematics,  though  Roger 
Tichborne  had   passed  an  examination    in  Euclid  ;  that 
he  believed  that  a  copy  of  Virgil   handed  to  him  was 
'•in  Greek,"  though   Roger  had  made  considerable  pro- 
..ress  in   the  study  of  Latin.     He  w^as   compelled  again 
and  again  to  admit  that  statements  he  had  deliberately 
made  were  absolutely  false.     When  questioned  with  re- 
gard to  that  most  impressive  of  all  episodes  in  Roger's 
life,  his  love  for  his  cousin,  he  showed   himself  unac- 
quainted   not  merel)^  with  precise  dates   but   with  the 
broad  outline  of  the  story  and  the  order  of  events.     His 
answers   on   these    matters    were   again    confused,    and 
wholly   irreconcilable.      Yet  the  Solicitor-General    per- 
sisting  for   good    reasons   in  interrogating  him   on    the 
slanderous    story  of    the    sealed    packet,  he   was  com- 
pelled to   repeat  in  Court,    though    with    considerable 
variations,  what  he  had  long  ago  caused  to  be  bruited 
abroad.     Mrs.,  now  Lady,   Radcliffe,  by  her  own   wish, 
sat    in  Court  beside  her  husband,  confronting   the  false 
witness    on  that    occasion  ;    and  they  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  hearing  him  convicted  out  of  his  own  mouth,  and 
by  the  damnatory  evidence  of  documents  of  undisputed 
authenticity,  of  a   deliberate  series  of  abominable  inven- 
tions, having  the  two-fold  object  of  punishing  the  lady 
wdiom  Roger  loved  so  deeply,  and  of  extricating  himself 
from  the  humiliating  position  of  being  obliged  to  con- 
fess to  his  friends  that  he  had  been  not  merely  unwill- 
ing, but   unable,  to  answer  Mr.  Gosford's  test  question. 
It  was  during  the   course  of  this  famous  trial   that  the 
pocket-book    left    behind   by    the    claimant    at   Wagga- 
Wagga  was  brought  to  England  by  the  gentleman  who 
had  discovered  it.     It  was  found  to  contain  what  ap- 


86  MEMORIES     OF 

peared  to  be  earl)^  attempts  at  Tichborne  signatures,  in 
the  form  "  Rodger  Char'es  Tichborne,"  besides  such 
entries  as  "  R.  C.  T.,  Bart.,  Tichborne  Hall,  Surrey, 
England,  G.  B. ;"  and  among  numerous  other  curious 
memoranda  in  the  Claimant's  own  handwriting  was  the 
name  and  address,  in  full,  of  Arthur  Orton's  old  sweet- 
heart, at  Wapping — the  "  respectiabel  place  "  of  which  he 
had  assured  liis  supporters  in  England  that  he  had  not 
the  slightest  knowledge.  The  exposure  of  Mr.  Baigent's 
unscrupulous  partisanship  by  Mr.  Hawkins,  and  the  elo- 
quent and  argumentative  address  to  the  jury  by  Sir 
John  Coleridge,  will  be  long  remembered.  At  its  con- 
clusion a  few  family  witnesses,  including  Lady  Rad- 
cliffe  were  heard,  who  deposed,  among  many  other 
matters,  to  the  famous  tattoo  marks  on  Roger's  arm  ; 
and,  finally  the  jury  declared  that  they  were  satisfied. 
Then  the  Claimant's  advisers,  to  avoid  the  inevitable 
verdict  for  their  opponents,  elected  to  be  non-suited — 
that  is  to  say,  to  drop  their  action.  But,  notwith- 
standing these  tactics.  Lord  Chief  Justice  Bovill, 
under  his  warrant,  immediately  committed  the  Claimant 
to  Newgate  on  a  charge  of  willful  and  corrupt  perjury. 

Thus  the  great  Tichborne  case  had  entirely  broken 
down  ;  and  the  interest  of  the  infant.  Sir  Alfred  Joseph 
Tichborne,  had  been  successfully  defended,  at  a  cost 
however,  of  considerably  over  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds.  Practically,  all  hope  of  resuscitating  the  Claim- 
ant's pretensions  was  now  at  an  end ;  but  there  were 
still  powerful  persons  who  had  staked  their  reputa- 
tion for  common  sense  on  the  truth  of  his  wild  story, 
and  there  were  others  who,  like  Mr.  Guildford  Onslow, 
M.  P.,  had  gambled  heavily  on  the  chances  of  his  suc- 
cess. That  gentleman  stood  alone  in  his  persevering 
efforts  to  give  color  and  support  to  the  slanders  upon 
Lady    Radcliffe    and    the   long-exploded   story   of    the 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  87 

**  sealed  packet,"  but  though  the  Claimant  had  been 
heard  to  confess  to  falsehood  and  calumny,  and  to  de- 
cline to  give  particulars  of  his  admitted  association  in 
Australia  with  horse-stealers,  murderers,  and  highway- 
robbers,  on  the  ground  that  to  do  so  "  might  render  him 
liable  to  a  criminal  prosecution,"  his  most  enthusiastic 
partisans  had  not  entirely  withdrawn  their  countenance. 
Accordingly,  after  a  few  weeks'  delay,  the  Claimant  was 
released  from  Newgate  on  bail  in  the  sum  of  i^  10,000 — 
his  sureties  being  Earl  Rivers,  Mr.  Guildford  Onslow, 
M.  P.,  Mr.  Whalley,  M.  P.,  and  Mr.  Alban  Attwood,  a 
medical  man,  residing  at  Bayswater. 

Then  began  that  systematic  agitation  on  the  Claim- 
ant's behalf,  and  those  public  appeals  for  subscriptions, 
which  were  so  remarkable  a  feature  of  the  thirteen 
months'  interval  between  the  civil  and  the  Criminal  trial. 
The  Tichborne  Romance,  as  it  was  called,  had  made  the 
name  of  the  Claimant  famous  ;  and  sight-seers  through- 
out the  kingdom  were  anxious  to  get  a  glimpse  of  "  Sir 
Roger."  It  was  true  his  case  had  entirely  broken  down, 
but  the  multitude  were  struck  by  the  fact  that  he  could 
still  appear  on  platforms  with  excitable  members  of  Par- 
liament to  speak  for  him,  and  could  even  find  a  lord  to 
be  his  surety.  It  was  not  every  one  who  in  reading  the 
long  cross-examination  of  the  Claimant  had  been  able  to 
see  the  significance  of  the  admissions  which  he  was  com- 
pelled to  make ;  and  owing  to  the  Claimant's  counsel 
stopping  the  case  on  the  hint  of  the  jury,  the  other  side 
of  the  story  had  not  really  been  heard.  It  was  curious 
that  this  fact  was  made  an  argument  in  the  Claimant's 
favor.  "Why,"  asked  his  friends,  "did  the  jury  stop 
the  case  before  they  had  heard  all  the  evidence?"  They 
forgot  that  the  jury  had  listened  patiently  to  every  one 
of  the  witnesses  on  the  Claimant's  side,  and  that  although 
they  had  declared  themselves  satisfied,  the  case  must 


88  MEMORIES     OF 

have  continued  if  the  Claimant's  advisers  had  not  volun- 
tarily relinquished  the  struggle. 

Meanwhile,  the  propagandism  continued  until  there 
was  hardly  a  town  in  the  kingdom  in  which  Sir  Roger 
Charles  Tichborne,  Bart.,  had  not  appeared  on  platforms 
and  addressed  crowded  meetings  ;  while  Mr.  Guildford 
Onslow  and  Mr.  Whalley  were  generally  present  to 
deliver  their  foolish  and  inflammatory  harangues.  At 
theaters  and  music  halls,  at  pigeon  matches  and  open  air 
fetes,  the  Claimant  was  perseveringly  exhibited  ;  and 
while  the  other  side  preserved  a  decorous  silence,  the 
public  never  ceased  to  hear  the  tale  of  his  imaginary 
wrongs.  A  journal  was  actually  started,  entitled  The 
Tichborne  Gazette,  the  sole  function  of  which  was  to 
excite  the  public  mind  still  further  ;  and  in  the  newspa- 
pers appeared  from  time  to  time  long  lists  of  subscribers 
to  the  Tichborne  Defense  Fund.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  unexampled  system  of  creating  prejudice  with 
regard  to  a  great  trial  still  pending  was  permitted  to  con- 
tinue long  after  the  criminal  trial  had  commenced. 
There  had  been  proceedings,  it  is  true,  for  contempt 
against  the  Claimant  and  his  supporters,  Mr.  Onslow, 
Mr.  Whalley,  and  Mr.  Skipworth,  and  fine  and  imprison- 
ment were  inflicted  ;  but  the  agitation  continued,  violent 
attacks  were  made  upon  witnesses,  and  even  upon  the 
judges  then  engaged  in  trying  the  case,  and  at  length 
the  Court  was  compelled  peremptorily  to  forbid  all 
appearances  of  the  Claimant  at  public  meetings. 

The  great  "  Trial  at  Bar,"  presided  over  by  Sir  Alex- 
ancer  Cockburn,  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  Queen's 
Bench,  Mr.  Justice  Mellor,  and  Mr.  Justice  Lush,  com- 
menced on  the  23rd  of  April,  1873,  and  ended  on  the  28th 
of  February,  1874 — a  period  of  a  little  over  ten  months. 
On  the  side  of  the  Crown  were  Mr.  Hawkins  and  Mr. 
Sergeant  Parry ;  on  that  of  the  defendant,  Dr.  Kenealy 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  89 

and  Mr.  MacMahon,  M.  P.  The  pomp  and  ceremony 
with  which  the  proceedings  were  thus  conducted  was 
inevitable,  for  it  is  only  a  trial  at  Bar  before  three  judges 
that  can  be  continued  without  regard  to  the  ordinary 
periods  of  sessions  or  legal  terms.  But  these  stately 
accessories  necessarily  impressed  the  mind  of  the  popu- 
lace, and  the  daily  arrival  and  departure  of  the  Claimant, 
in  the  carriage  provided  for  him  by  his  supporters,  were 
witnessed  by  thousands  of  persons,  shouting  lustily  for 
"  Sir  Roger,"  while  the  object  of  their  attentions,  bow- 
ing to  right  and  left,  gracefully  acknowledged  these 
tokens  of  unabated  popularity. 

The  leading  incidents  in  the  great  trial  which  has  oc- 
cupied judge,  jury,  and  counsel  for  just  188  days  are 
fresh  in  the  memory  of  the  public.  On  the  side  of  the 
prosecution  212  witnesses  gave  their  testimony;  but  the 
documentary  evidence,  including  the  enormous  mass  of 
Roger  Tichborne's  letters,  so  valuable  as  exhibiting  the 
character,  the  pursuits,  the  thoughts,  and  feelings  of  the 
writer,  were  scarcely  less  important.  The  entire  Tich- 
borne  and  Seymour  families  may  be  said  to  have  given 
their  testimony  against  the  Defendant.  Unhappily, 
Lady  Doughty  had  passed  away  from  the  troubled  scene 
since  the  date  of  the  last  trial ;  but  she  had  been  ex- 
amined and  cross-examined  on  her  death-bed,  and  had 
then  repeated  the  evidence  which  she  gave  on  the  pre- 
vious occasion,  and  declared  that  the  Claimant  was  an 
impostor.  Lady  Radcliffe  again  appeared  in  the  witness 
box,  and  told  her  simple  story,  confirmed  as  it  was  in 
all  important  particulars  by  the  correspondence  and 
other  records.  Old  Paris  friends  and  acquaintances  were 
unanimous.  Father  Fef^vre  and  the  venerable  Abb6 
Sails,  Chatillon,  the  tutor,  and  his  wife,  and  numerous 
others  declared  that  this  man  was  not  Roger  Tichborne, 
and  exposed  his  ignorance  both  of  them   and  their  past 


go  MEMORIES     OF 

transactions.  When  questioned,  the  Defendant  had 
sworn  that  his  father  never  had  a  servant  named  Gos- 
sein  ;  but  the  letters  of  Sir  James  were  shown  to  contain 
numerous  allusions  to  "  my  faithful  Gossein,"  and  Gos- 
sein  himself  came  into  the  witness  box  and  told  how  he 
had  known  Roger  Tichborne  from  the  cradle  to  his  boy- 
hood, and  from  his  boyhood  to  the  very  hour  of  his 
going  on  his  travels.  On  the  Orton  question,  nearly 
fifty  witnesses  declared  their  conviction  that  the  Defend- 
ant sitting  then  before  them  was  the  butcher's  son  whom 
they  had  known  in  Wapping.  Testimony  of  that  kind, 
it  is  true,  is  of  little  value,  though  an  exception  should 
be  made  in  the  case  of  Miss  Loader,  the  old  sweetheart 
of  Arthur  Orton,  who  may  be  presumed  to  have  remem- 
bered him  well.  But  the  strength  of  the  Orton  case  of 
the  prosecution  lay  in  those  documentary  evidences  of 
undisputed  authenticity,  and,  above  all,  in  that  singular 
chain  of  circumstances  which  has  been  already  noticed. 
The  witnesses  from  Australia  and  from  South  America 
unhesitatingly  identified  the  defendant  with  Orton  ; 
but  it  is  more  important  to  observe  that  theirtestimony 
was  supported  by  records  and  documents  of  various 
kinds,  including  the  ledgers  of  Mr.  Foster,  of  Boisdale, 
letters  under  the  Defendant's  own  hand,  and  writings 
which  it  could  not  be  denied  were  from  the  hand  of 
Arthur  Orton. 

On  the  other  side,  the  witnesses  were  still  more 
numerous.  They  included  a  great  number  of  persons 
from  Wapping,  who  swore  they  did  not  recognize  in  the 
Defendant  the  lad  whom  they  had  known  as  Arthur 
Orton.  Many  others  swore  they  had  known  both 
Orton  and  the  Defendant  in  Australia,  and  that  they 
were  different  persons,  but  their  stories  were  irreconcil- 
able with  each  other,  and  were,  moreover,  in  direct  con- 
flict with  the  statements  of  the  Claimant  on  oath,  while 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  91 

several  of  these  witnesses  were  persons  of  proved  bad 
character,  and  unworthy  of  belief.  Great  numbers  of 
Carabineers  declared  that  the  Defendant  was  exactly 
like  their  old  officer;  but,  while  ten  officers  of  that  regi- 
ment appeared  for  the  prosecution,  and  positively 
affirmed  that  the  Defendant  was  not  Mr.  Tichborne, 
only  two  officers  gave  testimony  on  the  other  side  ;  and 
even  these  admitted  that  they  had  doubts.  Eight  years 
had  elapsed  since  Mr.  Gibbes  fancied  he  had  "  spotted  " 
Sir  Roger  in  his  "  hovel  "  at  Wagga-Wagga,  but  still  no 
Arthur  Orton  was  forthcoming ;  nor  did  the  sister  of 
Orton  venture  to  come  forward  on  behalf  of  the  man 
who  had  been  compelled  to  admit  having  taken  them 
into  his  pay.  Not  only  was  the  Claimant's  story  of  his 
wreck  and  rescue  shown  to  have  been  absurd  and  im- 
possible, but  it  was  unsupported  by  any  evidence,  ex- 
cept vague  recollections  of  witnesses  of  having  seen  an 
Osprey  and  some  shipwrecked  sailors  at  Melbourne,  in 
July,  1854;  and  it  was  admitted  that  if  their  tale  were 
true,  the  phantom  vessel,  and  the  fact  of  its  picking  up 
nine  precious  lives,  must  have  escaped  the  notice  of 
Lloyd's  agents,  of  Custom  House  officers,  and  of  the 
Australian  newspapers.  Nay,  more,  the  Claimant's 
Osprey  must  have  escaped  the  notice  of  such  authorities 
in  every  port  which  she  had  entered  from  the  day  that 
she  was  launched.  So,  indeed,  the  matter  stood,  until 
the  witness  Luie,  the  "  pretended  steward  of  the  Osprey^' 
swore  to  his  strange  story,  as  well  as  to  the  Defendant's 
recognition  of  him  by  name  as  an  old  friend.  The  Luie 
episode,  terminating  in  the  identification  of  that  in- 
famous witness  as  an  habitual  criminal  and  convict 
named  Lundgren,  only  recently  released  on  a  ticket-of- 
leave,  together  with'  the  complete  disproof  of  his  elab- 
orate Osprey  story,  is  familiar  to  the  public.  It  was  a 
significant  fact  that  other  witnesses  for  the  defense  were 


92  MEMORIES     OF 

admitted  to  be  associates  of  this  rascal ;  while,  one  of 
the  most  conspicuous  of  all — a  man  calling  himself 
"  Captain  "  Brown — had  pretended  to  corroborate  por- 
tions of  Luie's  evidence  which  are  now  proved  to  be 
false. 

Some  allowance  should  certainly  be  made  in  the  De- 
fendant's favor  for  the  singularly  unskillful  and  damaging 
character  of  his  counsel,  Dr.  Kenealy's  two  addresses  to 
the  jury,  which  occupied  no  less  than  forty-three  entire 
days.  The  learned  counsel  not  only  made  violent  per- 
sonal attacks  on  every  witness  of  importance  for  the 
prosecution,  without,  as  the  judges  observed,  "  any 
shadow  of  foundation,"  but  he  assailed  his  own  client 
v>ith  a  vehemence  and  a  persistence  which  are  Avithout 
parallel  in  the  case  of  an  advocate  defending  a  person 
against  a  charge  of  perjury.  He  gave  up  statements  of 
the  Defendant  at  almost  every  period  of  his  extra- 
ordinary story  as  "  false  ;"  declared  them  to  be  "  moon- 
shine ;"  expressed  his  conviction  that  no  sensible  person 
could  for  a  moment  believe  them  ;  acknowledged  that  to 
attempt  to  verify  them  in  the  face  of  the  evidence,  or  even 
to  reconcile  them  with  each  other,  would  be  hopeless ; 
set  down  some  as  "  arrant  nonsense,"  denounced  others 
as  "  Munchausenisms,"  and  recommended  the  jury  "  not 
to  believe  them  "  with  a  heartiness  which  would  have 
been  perfectly  natural  in  the  mouth  of  Mr  Hawkins,  but 
which,  coming  from  counsel  for  the  defense,  was  as  one 
of  the  learned  judges  remarked,  "strange  indeed."  But 
the  doctrine  of  the  learned  gentleman  was  that  the  very 
extent  of  the  perjury  should  be  his  client's  protection, 
because  it  showed  that  he  was  not  a  man  "  to  be  tried 
by  ordinary  standards."  When  in  addition  to  this,  he 
labored  day  after  day  to  persuade  the  jury  that  Roger 
Tichborne  was  a  drunkard,  a  liar,  a  fool,  an  undutiful 
son.  an  ungrateful  friend,  an  abandoned  libertine, — de- 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  93 

clared  in  loud  and  impassioned  tones  that  he  would 
^' strip  this  jay  of  his  borrowed  plumes,"  and  indignantly 
repudiated  the  notion  that  the  man  his  client  claimed  to 
be  had  one  single  good  quality  about  him,  the  humor  of 
the  situation  may  be  said  to  have  reached  its  climax. 
Yet  Dr.  Kenealy  at  least  proved  his  sincerity  by  not 
only  insinuating  charges  against  the  gentleman  who  dis- 
appeared with  the  Bella,  but  by  actually  calling  wit- 
nesses to  contradict  point  blank  statements  of  his  own 
client  which  lay  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  charges 
of  perjury  against  him. 

Mr.  Hawkin's  powerful  address  quickly  disposed  of 
this  singular  mode  of  defense.  The  inquiry  was  raised 
into  a  calmer  height,  when  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  com- 
menced his  memorable  summing  up,  going  minutely 
through  the  vast  mass  of  testimony — depicting  the  true 
character  of  Roger  Tichborne  from  the  rich  mine  of  ma- 
terials before  him,  contrasting  it  with  that  of  the  Defend- 
ant, as  shown  by  the  evidence,  and,  while  giving  due 
weight  to  the  testimony  in  his  favor,  exposing  by  the 
light  which  has  been  thrown  on  every  point  in  this  re- 
markable case  literally  hundreds  of  examples  of  the 
falsity  of  his  statements  made  upon  oath. 

The  verdict  of  GUILTY  had  been  anticipated  by  all 
who  have  paid  attention  to  the  evidence.  The  foreman 
publicly  declared  that  there  was  no  doubt  in  the  mind 
of  any  juryman  that  the  man  who  has  for  eight  years  as- 
sumed the  name  and  title  of  the  gentleman  whose  un- 
happy story  is  recorded  in  these  pages,  is  an  impostor, 
who  has  added  slander  of  the  wickedest  kind  to  his 
many  other  crimes.  But  not  only  were  they  satisfied  of 
this ;  they  were  equally  agreed  that  he  is  Arthur  Orton. 
The  sentence  of  fourteen  years'  penal  servitude  is 
assuredly  not  too  heavy  a  punishment  for  offenses  so 
enormous.     It  will  be  still  more  satisfactory  if  it  shall  be 


94  MEMORIES     OF 

found  practicable  to  bring  to  justice  the  most  prominent 
of  those  persons  who  have  continued  to  lend  aid  and 
countenance  to  this  most  audacious  attempt  at  frauds 
long  after  the  period  at  which  the  most  charitable  can 
imagine  that  their  eyes  were  not  opened  to  its  true 
character. 

FINAL   SCENES   IN   THE   TICHBORNE   CASE. 

It  was  just  after  12  o'clock  when  the  Jury  retired  to 
consider  their  verdict,  and  in  the  court,  every  part  of 
which  was  densely  crowded,  great  excitement  prevailed. 
Dr.  Kenealy,  who  during  all  the  previous  days  occupied 
by  the  charge  of  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  was  but  rarely 
present,  and  then  only  for  a  very  short  time,  was  in  his 
place.  He  arrived  before  the  sitting  of  the  Court,  and 
remained  until  the  end  of  the  proceedings.  The  De- 
fendant was  in  his  usual  place.  In  the  space  between 
the  inner  bar  and  the  bench  a  sort  of  rude  table,  covered 
with  green  baize,  had  been  fixed  to  the  floor;  at  this  he 
was  seated,  and  before  him  were  writing  materials, 
which,  on  previous  occasions,  he  kept  continually  using. 
At  one  side  sat  his  solicitor  and  private  secretary,  on 
the  other  the  younger  Bogle,  his  constant  attendants 
throughout  the  trial.  He  entered  shortly  before  10 
o'clock,  looking  nervous  and  anxious,  and  seemed 
struck  by  the  appearance  of  three  men  in  plain  clothes, 
who  were  sitting  right  in  front  of  him,  and  who  up  to 
that  day  had  not  appeared  in  court.  Their  services 
were  shortly  to  be  required.  As  soon  as  the  jury  re- 
tired, Mr.  Frayling,  jun.,  tipstaff  of  the  Court,  took  his 
place  beside  the  Defendant  in  the  seat  before  occupied 
by  the  younger  Bogle.  On  a  sudden  there  was  a  hush, 
and  it  was  whispered,  but  hardly  believed,  that  the 
jury  had  agreed  on  their  verdict.     The  jury  returned 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  95 

into  court  at  33  minutes  past  12.  They  were  absent 
one  minute  less  than  half  an  hour,  and  every  one  now 
knew  what  the  verdict  would  be.  They  took  their 
places  in  the  box,  their  names  were  called  over,  and  the 
foreman  pronounced  the  verdict — "  Guilty  on  all  the 
counts,"  with  a  special  and  emphatic  vindication  of 
Lady  Radcliffe. 

The  Defendant  stood  up,  confused  and  abashed,  to 
hear  his  sentence. 

Master  COCKBURN,  addressing  the  jury,  said — "  Gentle- 
men, are  you  agreed  upon  your  verdict  ?" 

The  Foreman. — "  We  are." 

Master  CoCKBURN. — •'  Do  you  find  the  defendant 
guilty  or  not  guilty  on  the  first  count?  " 

The  Foreman. — "  Guilty ^ 

Master  CocKBURN.— "  Do  you  find  the  Defendant 
guilty  or  not  guilty  on  the  second  count  ?" 

The  Foreman. — "  Guilty" 

Master  CocKBURN. — "  You  say  he  is  guilty  on  both 
counts,  and  that  is  the  verdict  of  you  all?" 

The  Foreman. — "That  is  the  verdict  of  us  all." 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice. — "  Are  you  agreed  upon  all 
the  issues  ?  Are  you  agreed  that  the  Defendant  is  not 
Roger  Tichborne  ?  " 

The  Foreman. — "  We  are,  my  Lord." 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice. — "Are  you  agreed  that  he 
is  Arthur  Orton?" 

The  Foreman. — "  We  are." 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice. — "Are  you  agreed  on  the 
issue  of  the  assignment  of  perjury  in  reference  to  the 
sealed  packet  and  Lady  Radcliffe  ?  " 

The  Foreman. — "  We  are," 

Mr.  Hawkins. — "  On  behalf  of  the  Crown,  I  pray  for 
immediate  judgment  on  the  Defendant." 

The  Foreman  of  the  Jury, — "  I  will  read  the  verdict. 


96  MEMORIES     OF 

We  find,  first,  that  the  Defendant  is  not  Roger  Charles 
Doughty  Tichborne ;  secondly,  we  find  that  the  De- 
fendant did  not  seduce  Miss  Catherine  Doughty,  now 
Lady  Radcliffe,  and,  further,  we  find  that  there  is  not 
the  slightest  evidence  that  Roger  Charles  Doughty 
Tichborne  was  ever  guilty  of  undue  familiarity  with  his 
cousin,  Lady  Radcliffe,  on  any  occasion  whatever  (ap- 
plause);  thirdly,  we  find  that  the  Defendant  is  Arthur 
Orton." 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice. — "  That  disposes  of  all  the 
issues." 

The  Forman  then  handed  to  the  Lord  Chief  Justice 
a  written  paper  prepared  by  the  jury,  and  asked  the 
opinion  of  the  Court  whether  it  was  a  proper  one  to  be 
read. 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice. — "  Yes,  I  think  it  is  quite 
right.     This  is  the  general  opinion  of  you  all  ?  " 

The  Foreman. — "  Yes,  my  Lord,  the  general  opinion  of 
us  all." 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice  thereupon  read  the  paper, 
which  was  in  these  terms  : 

"  The  jury  desire  to   express  their  opinion  that  the 

charges   of  bribery,    conspiracy,    and    undue    influence 

brought  against  the  prosecution  in  this  case  are  entirely 

devoid  of  foundation ;  and  they  regret  exceedingly  the 

violent  language  and  demeanor  of  the  leading  counsel 

for  the  defendant  in  his  attacks  upon  the  conduct  of  the 

prosecution  and  upon  several  of  the  witnesses  produced 

in  the  case. 

"  (Signed)  H.  F.  DiCKENS,  Foreman." 

The  Defendant  having  been  ordered  to  stand  up, 

Mr.  Justice  Mellor  pronounced  the  sentence  of  the 

Court  upon  him  as  follows :  "  Thomas  Castro,  otherwise 

called   Arthur   Orton,  otherwise   called   Roger  Charles 

Doughty  Tichborne,   Baronet,   after   a   trial    of    unex- 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  97 

ampled  duration,  you  have  been  convicted  by  the  jury 
of  the  several  perjuries  charged  in  the  counts  of  this  in 
dictment,  and  which  were  truly  described  by  your 
counsel  as  "  crimes  as  black  and  foul  as  Justice  ever 
raised  her  sword  to  strike."  In  the  trial  of  your  case 
the  jury  have  exhibited  a  care,  a  patience,  and  an  in- 
telligence never  surpassed — indeed,  it  was  such  as  to 
extort  expressions  of  admiration  from  your  own  counsel, 
and  their  verdict  meets  with  the  unanimous  approval  of 
the  Court.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  any 
person  who  has  considered  the  intrinsic  improbabilities 
of  your  story,  and  has  intelligently  considered  the  evi- 
dence which  has  been  adduced  in  the  course  of  this 
trial,  could  have  come  to  any  other  conclusion.  The 
testimony  of  individuals,  however  numerous  or  respect- 
able they  may  be,  to  your  personal  identity  with  either 
Arthur  Orton  or  Roger  Tichborne  is  comparatively  of 
little  worth  after  so  great  a  lapse  of  time,  except  in  the 
instances  in  which  there  existed  special  interest  to  ob- 
serve and  remember  you.  Of  course  the  evidence  of 
Miss  Loader,  of  the  family  of  Roger  Tichborne,  and  of 
Mr.  Gosford  is  of  great  importance  in  this  case,  and 
when  I  mention  the  name  of  Mr.  Gosford  I  pause  for  a 
moment — speaking  for  myself  at  all  events — to  say  that 
he  has  placed  public  justice  greatly  in  his  debt. 

"Your  entire  ignorance  of  the  native  tongue  of  Roger 
Tichborne  coupled  with  at  least  the  partial  acquisition 
of  another  language,  the  tattoo  marks  which  were 
proved  to  have  existed  on  the  arm  of  the  undoubted 
Roger  Tichborne,  and  his  genuine  letters,  and  the  letters 
written  by  you,  whether  in  the  character  of  Roger  Tich- 
borne or  Arthur  Orton,  the  admissions  expressly  made 
or  in.plied  in  your  conduct,  and  all  that  is  known  of 
the  history  of  the  life  and  character  of  Roger  Tichborne 

and  of  yourself  present  an  accumulation  of  proof  such  as 
II.— 7 


98  MEMORIES     OF 

can  rarely  be  given  in  a  court  of  justice,  and  which  con- 
clusively demonstrates  the  propriety  of  the  verdict  of 
the  jury.  No  man  can  look  with  an  unprejudiced  mind 
and  a  clear  observation  at  the  letters  of  the  undoubted 
Roger  Tichborne  without  coming  to  the  conclusion  that 
they  were  never  written  by  you,  while  between  the  un 
doubted  letters  of  Arthur  Orton  and  your  own  there  fs 
evidence  of  identity  most  complete  and  convincin^^" 
Of  what  avail  could  the  negative  evidence  of  youi 
identity  with  Arthur  Orton  be  against  the  circumstances 
connected  with  your  visit  to  Wapping,  with  your  as- 
sumption of  a  false  name,  and  your  correspondence  and 
dealings  with  the  family  of  Arthur  Orton,  added  to  the 
fact  that  your  counsel  did  not  venture  to  put  into  the 
box  Arthur  Orton's  sisters,  who,  from  the  very  first,  were 
in  your  interest,  who  had  received  money  from  you,  and 
had  made  affidavits  in  your  favor  ?  The  inference  from 
your  not  calling  them  is  irresistable — namely,  that  they 
were  possessed  of  knowledge  which  must  have  tended 
strongly  to  prove  your  identity  with  Arthur  Orton. 
That  question,  important  as  it  is,  is  only  material  as 
affording  one  of  the  modes  of  proof  that  you  are  not 
and  can  not  be  Roger  Tichborne. 

"  Whether  you  originally  conceived  and  planned  the 
entire  scheme  which  you  ultimately  carried  out,  I  know 
not.  The  marvelous  growth  and  development  of  your 
knowledge  as  to  the  circumstances  connected  with  the 
history  of  Roger  Tichborne  and  his  military  life,  leave 
it  uncertain  whether  your  original  design  was  not  en- 
larged by  reason  of  the  ease  with  which  you  found 
people  so  ready  to  become  your  dupes,  and,  I  fear,  in 
some  cases,  your  accomplices.  However  that  may  be, 
in  the  carrying  out  of  your  scheme  you  hesitated  at  no> 
amount  of  perjury  and  fraud  which  you  thought  to  be 
necessary  to  its  success.     Wicked  and  nefarious  as  it  was 


WESTMINSTER     HALL.  99 

to  impose  yourself  upon  society  as  Roger  Charles  Tich- 
borne,  and  to  attempt  to  deprive  the  lawful  heir  of  his 
inheritance,  that  offense  sinks  almost  into  insignificance 
when  compared  with  the  still  more  infamous  perjury  by 
which  you  sought  to  support  your  scheme.  I  refer  to  your 
attempt  to  blast  the  reputation  of  Lady  Radcliffe.  No 
more  foul  or  deliberate  falsehood  was  ever  heard  in  a 
court  of  justice.  I  can  hardly  restrain  the  indignation 
which  I  feel  at  the  incredible  baseness  of  your  conduct 
in  that  respect.  Happily  the  means  of  refuting  that 
cowardly  calumny  were  immediately  at  hand,  and  never 
was  a  charge  so  completely  shattered  and  exposed  as 
was  that.  It  is  not,  however,  because  the  refutation  of 
the  falsehood  was  singularly  easy  and  complete  that  the 
baseness  of  your  conduct  is  diminished.  I  believe  I  am 
speaking  the  sentiment  of  every  member  of  the  Court 
when  I  say  that  the  punishment  about  to  be  assigned 
by  the  Court  is  wholly  inadequate  to  your  offense.  The 
framers  of  the  Act  of  Parliament  that  fixes  and  limits 
the  sentence  which  the  Court  is  authorized  to  pass  upon 
you,  never  dreamed  of  circumstances  so  aggravated  as 
exist  in  your  case.  The  sentence  of  the  Court  which  I 
now  pronounce  is,  that  for  the  perjury  alleged  in  the 
first  count  of  this  indictment  upon  which  you  have  been 
convicted,  you  be  kept  in  penal  servitude  for  the  term 
of  seven  years  ;  and  that  for  the  perjury  alleged  in  the 
second  count  of  this  indictment,  of  which  you  have  also 
been  convicted,  you  be  kept  in  penal  servitude  for  the 
further  term  of  seven  years,  to  commence  immediately 
upon  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  penal  servitude  as- 
signed to  you  in  respect  of  your  conviction  upon  the 
first  count  of  this  indictment,  and  that  is  the  sentence 
of  the  Court." 

The  Defendant. — *'  May  I  be  allowed  to  say  a   few 
words?  " 


loo  MEMORIES     OF 

The  Lord  Chief  Justice. — "  No." 

The  Defendant  then  shook  hands  with  his  leading 
counsel,  Dr.  Kenealy,  and  was  immediately  afterwards 
removed  from  the  Court  in  the  custody  of  Mr.  Frayling, 
jun.,  the  tipstaff. 

LEADING  DATES   IN   THE   TICHBORNE   CASE. 

1829. — Roger  Tichborne  born. 
1849. — Entered  the  army. 

1852,  January. — Proposed     marriage     to     his     cousin, 

Miss  Doughty,  and  was  rejected. 

1853,  June  19. — Arrived  at  Valparaiso,  from  Havre. 

1854,  April  20. — Sailed   from  Rio  Janeiro,  in  the  Bella, 

which  foundered  at  sea. 

1865,  May  19. — Lady  Tichborne  advertises  for  her  son. 

1866,  July  3. — The    Claimant,    found    by    Gibbes    and 

Cubitt,  in  Australia,  asserts  that  he  and  eight 
others  were  saved  from  the  wreck  of  the  Bella; 
that  he  went  to  Australia,  and  lived  there 
thirteen  years  in  the  name  of  Castro.  Was 
married  there  as  Castro  ;  afterward  re-married 
as  Tichborne. 

1867,  January. — Claimant    comes  from  Australia ;    and 

is  accepted  by  Lady  Tichborne  as  her  son,  at 
Paris.  Is  repudiated  as  an  impostor  by  all  the 
other  members  of  the  family,  excepting  Sir 
Clifford  Constable. 

1870. — Evidence  taken  in  Chancery  ;  commissions  sent 
out  to  take  evidence  in  Australia  and  South 
America. 

1871,  May  II. — Trial  to  recover  the  Tichborne  estates 
(valued  at  ;^24,C)00  a  year)  begun  in  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas,  before  Chief  Justice  Bovill. 
Chief  counsel   for   Claimant,  Sergeant   Ballan- 


WESTMINSTER    HALL.  loi 

tine  ;  chief  counsel  for  defendants — the  trustees 
of  Sir  Henry  Tichborne,  a  minor — Sir  J.  Col- 
eridge, then  Solicitor-General  (afterwards  Attor- 
ney-General). Claimant  examined  twenty-two 
days.  Trial  adjourned  on  fortieth  day,  July  7; 
resumed  November  7 ;  case  for  Claimant  closed 
December  21. 

1872,  January  15. — Trial  resumed.  Sir  J.  Coleridge 
spoke  twenty-six  days. 

1872,  March  6, — 103rd  day  of  the  trial.  Jury  interposed, 
and  declared  themselves  satisfied  that  Claimant 
was  not  Sir  Roger  Tichborne ;  Sergeant  Bal- 
lantine,  on  behalf  of  the  Claimant,  elected  to  be 
non-suited. 

1872,  March  6. — Chief  Justice  Bovill  ordered  Claimant 
into  custody,  to  be  tried  for  perjury. 

1872,  April  9. — Claimant  indicted  as  Castro,  otherwise 
Orton. 

1872,  Aj^ril    23. — Court     of    Queen's    Bench     allowed 

prisoner  to  be  released  on  bail. 

1873,  January  11. — Mr.  G.  Onslow,  M.P.,  and  Mr.  Whal- 

ley,  M.P.,  ordered  to  appear  before  the  Court 
for  contempt. 

1873,  April  23. — Trial  of  Claimant  begins  at  bar,  before 
Lord  Chief  Justice  Cockburn,  Justice  Lush, 
and  Justice  Mellon  Chief  Counsel  for  prosecu- 
tion, Mr.  Hawkins,  Q.C.,  and  Mr.  Sergeant 
Parry.  Chief  counsel  for  prisoner,  Dr.  Kenealy 
Q.C.,  and  Mr.  McMahon. 

1873,  July  22. — Dr.  Kenealy  opens  his  speech  for  the 
defense. 

1873,  August  21. — First  witness  called  for  the  defense. 

1873,  September  18. — The  Claimant  forbidden  by  the 
Lord  Chief  Justice  to  attend  public  meetings. 

1873,  September  23. — looth  day  of  the  trial. 


I02  WESTMINSTER    HALL. 

1873,  October  14. — Luie  called  as  a  witness. 
1873,  October  27. — Case  for  the  defense  closes. 
1873,  December   2. — Dr.    Kenealy   begins    his    closing 
speech  for  the  defense. 

1873,  December   ii. — Luie    ordered    into    custody   for 

perjury. 

1874,  January   15. — Mr.  Hawkins    begins  his  reply  for 

the  Crown. 

1874,  January  29. — Lord  Chief  Justice  begins  his  sum- 
ming-up.    169th  day  of  the  trial. 

1874,  February  28th. — i88th  day  of  the  trial ;  verdict — 
guilty;  sentence — fourteen  years'  penal  ser- 
vitude. 


AN  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  TESTIMONY 

OF  THE 

FOUR    EVANGELISTS, 

BY  THE   RULES  OF  EVIDENCE   ADMINISTERED 
IN  COURTS  OF  JUSTICE. 

WITH  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  TRIAL  OF  JESUS. 

By  SIMON  GREENLEAF,  LL.D., 

Late  Dam  Professor  of  Law  in  Harvard  University ^  author  of  "  Treatiie  »n 
the  Law  of  Evidence," 

WITH  AN  APPENDIX 

CONTAINING    THE    VARYING    VERSIONS    OF    THE    MOST    ANCIENT 
MANUSCRIPTS,  AS  COMPARED  WITH  THE  KING  JAMES  BIBLE. 

By    CONSTANTINE    TISCHENDORFF. 


The  author  is  a  lawyer,  very  learned  in  his  profession, 
acute,  critical,  and  used  to  raising  and  meeting  practical 
doubts.  Author  of  a  treatise  on  the  law  of  evidence, 
which  has  become  a  classic  in  the  hands  of  the  profession 
which  he  adorns,  and  teacher  in  one  of  the  Law  Seminaries 
which  do  honor  to  our  country  in  the  eyes  of  Europe,  he 
brings  rare  qualifications  for  the  task  he  assumes.  *  *  * 
Such  are  our  views  of  this  work  which  we  commend  to 
all ;  to  the  legal  profession,  from  the  character  of  its 
topics  and  the  rank  of  its  author :  to  men  desirous  of 
knowledge,  in  every  rank  in  life,  because  of  its  presenting 
this  subject  under  such  treatment  as  is  applied  to  every 


GREENLEAF  ON  THE  EVANGELISTS. 


day  practical  questions.  It  does  not  touch  the  intrinsic 
evidences  of  the  Gospel :  those  which  to  the  believer  are, 
after  all,  the  highest  proofs.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered, 
that  these  are  proofs  which  are  not  satisfactory  until  an 
examination  of  the  outward  evidence  has  led  men  to  the 
conviction,  that  the  Gospels  cannot  be  false. — Extract  from 
the  Ne7v  York  Observer. 

It  is  the  production  of  an  able  and  profound  lawyer,  a 
man  who  has  grown  grey  in  the  halls  of  justice  and  the 
schools  of  jurisprudence ;  a  writer  of  the  highest  authority 
on  legal  subjects,  whose  life  has  been  spent  in  weighing 
testimony  and  sifting  evidence,  and  whose  published  opin- 
ions on  the  rules  of  evidence  are  received  as  authoritative 
in  all  the  English  and  American  tribunals ;  for  fourteen 
years  the  highly  respected  colleague  of  the  late  Mr.  Justice 
Story,  and  also  the  honored  head  of  the  most  distinguished 
and  prosperous  school  of  English  law  in  the  world. — 
North  American  Review. 

It  is  no  mean  honor  to  America  that  her  schools  of 
jurisprudence  have  produced  two  of  the  first  writers  and 
best  esteemed  legal  authorities  of  this  century — the  great 
and  good  man.  Judge  Story,  and  his  worthy  and  eminent 
associate  Professor  Greenleaf.  Upon  the  existing  Law  o\ 
Evidence  (by  Greenleaf),  more  light  has  shone  from  the 
New  World  than  from  all  the  lawyers  who  adorn  the 
courts  of  Europe. — Lo?tdon  La%v  Magazine. 

PRICES  : 

Bound  in  Best  English  Cloth.  $5.00 

Bound  in  Library  Sheep,  6.00 


A  COMPLETE  LIBRARY  OP  RAILWAY  LAW. 


AMERICAN  RAILWAY  REPORTS. 

EDITED  BY 

J.  Henry  Tru.^ia:^',  Esq.,  of  the  Chicago  Bar, 

AND 

John  A.  Mallory,  Esq.,  of  the  New  York  Bar. 


A  want  has  long  been  felt  by  those  of  the  legal  profession  in  any- 
wise interested  in  matters  pertaining  to  Railway  Law.  of  some  com- 
pendium of  the  numerous  and  varying  authorities  upon  that  subject, 
which  are  yearly  created  by  the  decisions  of  the  Courts  in  t!ie  several 
States,  and  which  lie  scattered  through  sixty  or  seventy  volumes  pub- 
lished annually.  The  subject  is  one  of  great  importance;  the  deci- 
sions are  numerous  and  varied,  and  from  many  sections  of  the  country; 
text  books  and  selected  cases  prove  unsatisfactory  and  insufiRcient; 
and  the  search  for  the  cases  through  the  State  Reports  and  the  various 
Law  priodicals,  entails  considerable  expense,  and  endless  labor. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  we  have  caused  to  be  prepared,  with  great 
care,  a  series  of  Railway  Reports,  in  which  the  attainment  of  the 
following  objects  is  proposed. 

1.  To  furnish  a  correct  report  of  EVEEY  DECISION  on  any  topic 

of  Kaihvay  Law,  made  iu  the  United  States. 

2.  To  furnish  these  decisions  concurrently,  in  most  cases,  with, 

and  in  many  cases    IN  ADVANCE  OF  THEIR  PUBLICA- 
TION IN  THE  STATES. 

3.  To  provide,   at  small  expense,  and  in  an  accessible  and  con. 

Tcnient  form,  a  complete  library  of  current  Railw.ay  Law. 

The  decisions  are  grouped,  for  convenience,  after  the  topical  ar- 
rangement observed  in  the  most  popular  text  books  on  the  subject, 
and  the  volume  will  contain,  for  easy  reference,  an  analytical  index 
and  DOUBLE  index  of  cases. 

The  number  of  volume  and  page  on  which  it  will  appear  in  the 
several  State  Reports  is  given  for  each  case. 

A  record  will  be  kept  of  all  American  cases,  and  the  contents  of 
the  volumes  so  chosen  as  to  embrace — chronologically,  as  near  as  may 
be — every  decision. 

It  is  expected  that  the  scries  will  be  contained  in  about  two  volumea 
a  yeai'.  It  will  be  printed  and  bound  in  tiie  best  law  book  style,  and 
sold  at  the  NET  CASH  price  of  $5.00  per  volume. 

Vols.  1,  2,  and  ?,.  now  ready. 


A   HEW   EBiTIOH   OP 
DILLON 


ON 

~1 


A  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  Municipal  Corporations, 

BY 

Hon.  JOHN  F.   DH.LON,  LL.  D. 

L'.  S.  Circuit  Judjre,  Fliglith  Circuit,  and  late  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Iowa. 

Secorsdl  Edition,  Revised  asid  Creatly  Eniarged, 

Ccrstsinsrsg  1143  Additjonal  cases. 

2  YoJs.     N;t  Cash  Price,    $12.00. 


The  second  edititiou  of  this  great  work  is  now  reaay  for  delivery. 

The  first  edition  met  with  almost  unexanipled  favor  with  the 
Biir  and  Bench  of  the  country.  In  nine  months  an  edition  of  twice 
the  usual  number  of  copies -was  exhausted.  The  autlior.  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  Publishers,  has  availed  himself  of  the  interval  to  greatly 
enlarge  and  thorou2;lily  revise  the  work,  and  to  embody  in  it  the  re- 
sults of  all  the  important  cases,  English  and  American,  published 
since  the  first  edition,  and  in  many  instances  referring  to  cases  not 
yet  regularly  reported. 

On  the  subject  of  MUNICIPAL  BONDS  and  SECURITIES,  the 
work  has  been  greatly  enlarged  and  re-cast,  and  all  the  late  cases  in 
(he  Federal  and  State  Courts  fully  given. 


NEARLY    READY. 


WRIGHT 


ON    THE 


LAW  OF  CRIMINAL  CONSPIRACIES 

AND    AGREEMENTS. 

WITH    AMERICAN    NOTES. 

By    EUGENE    T.    GARDNER, 

OF    THE    NKW    YOUIC    BAR. 

CITING    EVERY    AMERICAN    CASE. 
Complete  in  one  vol.,  8vo. 


■*  This  is  a  volume  upon  perliaps  the  most  iraporlant  subject  of  our 
4uy.  Criminal  conspiracies  and  agreements  are  commonly  understood 
to  be  conspiracies  and  agreements  to  commit  crimes,  and  it  is  only  lately 
that  the  public  mind  has  learned  to  understand  what  olFences  are 
considered  as  crimes  so  as  to  be  subject  matter  of  conspiracy.  The 
history  of  the  question  as  related  by  Mr.  Wright  shows  how  diiiicult 
it  has  been  found  to  agree  upon  a  good  definition  of  conspiracy. 

"  Mr.  Wright  discusses  the;  whole  subject  with  much  learning  and 
discrimination,  and  arrives  at  a  set  of  conclusions  which  are  doubtle:i3 
correct,  but  which  reveal  the  difficulties  of  the  law. 

"  As  a  study  of  a  difficult  subject  Mr.  Wright's  treatise  is  to  be 
highly  commended.  He  has  evidently  grappled  with  the  cases  and 
comprehended  the  principles  governing  the  decisions.  The  leading 
cases  will  be  found  in  an  appendix." — London  Law  Tlme.s. 


DIGEST 

OF 

THE     LAWS 

OP 

THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK. 

COMPiaSING  THE 

REVISED   STATUTES 

AND 

STATUTES  OF  GENERAL  INTEREST. 
By    JOSEPH     D.     FAT, 

OF  THE  NEW  YORK  BAR. 


The  Statutes  are  given  ia  fall,  not  a  word  omitted.  The  word 
"  Digest "  is  simply  used  to  give  a  proper  idea  of  the  arrangement.  The 
work  will  be  complete  in  three  large  volumes.  Volume  I.  will  be 
ready  about  October  10,  and  Volumes  II.  and  III.  will  follow  at  shorv 
intervals.     Price  per  volume,  $8  50. 

"  This  enterprise  has  long  been  needed,  and  as  time  rolls  on,  and  oui 
laws  continue  to  multiply,  it  has  now  become  almost  a  necessity  to 
have  an  abridgment  or  digest  of  them  arranged  accordinof  to  the  sub- 
ificts,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  show  the  dates  when  they  were 
enacted.  The  subjects  are  numerous,  well  chosen,  and  alphabetically 
arranged,  and  are  again  subdivided  into  subjects  which  are  indicated 
by  black-letter  designations,  and  numbered.  References  are  made  to 
to  the  Revised  Statutes  by  pages  and  sections,  and  to  Edmonds' 
Statutes  at  large  by  the  pages,  and  to  the  Annual  Session  Laws  by 
dates,  chapter  and  section.  It  also  contains  many  local  laws  which 
are  of  general  interest,  especially  those  relating  to  the  Counties  of 
New  York,  Kings  and  Westchester.  Mr.  Fay  and  the  publishers 
deserve  the  thanks  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  for  this  very  convenient  and 
necessary  work,  which  will  greatly  aid  them  in  their  labors." — iV.  Y 
Law  Register. 


FASV30US    CASES 

OP 

CIRCUMSTANTIAL  EVIDENCE. 

"WITH   AN 

Introduction  on  the  Theory  of  Presumptive  Proo£ 

BY  S.  M.  PHILLIPPS, 

Author  of''''  Phillipps  on  Evidence." 

SECOND   EDITION,  GREATLY   ENLARGED. 

Prices :    In  Cloth  Binding,  $3  50.    In  Law  Sheep,  $4  50. 

SENT  BY   MAIL  PREPAID   ON   RECEIPT  OF  PRICE. 

It  has  been  endeavored  in  this  collection  to  gather  as  many 
properly  authenticated  cases  of  Circumstantial  Evidence  as  possible. 
No  work  of  the  kind  has  ever  before  been  published,  and  the  cases 
were  only  to  be  found  in  various  scattered  volumes  of  reports  and 
periodicals.  The  admirable  introduction  by  Mr.  Phillipps,  on  the 
Theory  of  Presumptive  Proof,  together  with  his  able  analysis  of  the 
celebrated  case  of  Captain  Donallan,  is  a  most  valuable  addition  to  the 
book. 

^  Aside  from  its    legal  character,  the  work  is  one  of  absorbing 
interest  and  its  study  is  as  attractive  as  it  is  profitable.  i 

This  volume,  with  its  most  remarkable  record,  is  not  only  of 
value  to  the  criminal  lawyer,  but  it  is  an  invaluable  contribution  to 
the  interests  of  humanity.  It  shows  us  more  eloquently  than  forensic 
eloquence  can  portray,  the  uncertainty  of  evidence  and  the  utter  unre- 
liability of  that  of  a  circumstantial  character. 

)  "  The  '  Introduction,'  by  Mr.  Phillips,  is  an  elaborate  essay  on  the 
Theory  of  Presumptive  Proof,  and  will  richly  repay  perusal.  The 
whole  book  is  a  marvellous  comment  on  the  uncertainty  of  the  law. 
We  wish  a  copy  of  it  could  be  in  the  hands  of  every  jurist  in  the 
country.  We  shudder  when  we  think  of  the  long  roll  of  those  who 
have  been  unjustly  sent  down  to  dishonored  graves,  and  we  shall  be 
glad  if  the  reading  of  this  volume  shall  result  in  more  caution  in  the 
finding  of  a  verdict,  and  greater  hesitancy  in  sacrificing  life  to  that 
most  uncertain  of  all  things  in  this  world,  circumstantial  evidence." — 
Christian  at  Work. 


CAUSES  CELEBEES. 


The  publishers  beg  leave  to  announce  that  they  have  just  pub- 
lished Vols.  1,  2,  and  3  of  a  series  of  CAUSES  CELBBRES. 
The  selection  of  Trials  is  carefully  made  with  special  reference  to 
the  value  of  each  as  a  model  of  legal  argument  and  eloquence,  of 
skillful  examination  of  witnesses,  and  of  signal  ability  in  the  gen- 
eral conduct  of  the  case. 

THE  TRIAL  OF  QUEEN  CAROLINE 

has  been  selected  as  the  first  of  the  series,  as  it  presents,  in  t 
pre-eminent  degree,  specimens  of  the  masterly  skill  of  Counsel, 
both  in  their  speeches  and  examination  of  witnesses. 

The  following  list  of  counsel  will  show  the  eminent  legtd 
talent  engaged  in  the  conduct  of  the  trial.  It  is  an  array  which 
has  never  been  equallea. 

FOR  THE  GOVERNMENT: 

Attorney  General,    Mr.  GIFFORD, 

Afterwards,   Lord  Gifford. 

Solicitor  General,    Mr.    SERGEANT  COPLEY, 

Afterwards,  Lord  Lyndhurst. 

Mr.  PARKE, 

Afterwards,  Lord  Wensleydale,  and  English  Baron  of 

the  Exchequer. 

FOR  THE   QUEEN: 

Mr.    BROUGHAM, 

Afterwards,    Lord  Brougham,  and  Lord  High  Chan. 
cellor. 


Causes  Cdibres. 


Mr.    DENMAN, 

Afterwards,  Lord  Chief  JuBtice  and  Lord  Denmui. 

Mr.  SERGEANT   WILDE, 

Afterwards,  Lord  Truro  and  Lord  High  Chancellor. 

Mr.   LUSHINGTON, 

Afterwards,  Judge  of  the  High  Court  of  Admiralty. 

Mr.    TINDAL, 

Afterwards,  Solicitor  General  aud  Chief  Justice  of  the 

Common  Pleas. 

Mr.    WILLIAMS, 

Afterwards,  Judge  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench. 

LORD    ELDON    was  Lord  High  Chancellor. 

The  argument  of  Counsel  and  their  examinations  of  the  witnesses 
are  given  IN  FULL.  A  full  and  minute  report  of  the  trial,  taken 
from  the  Journal  of  the  House  of  Lords,  has  been  secured,  and  an 
accurate  and  complete  report  of  the  case  can  therefore  be  confidently 
promised.  The  report  of  the  trial  is  complete  in  three  octavo 
volumea 


OPINIONS   OF   EMINENT   JCKISTS   AND   OTHERS. 

Our  Law  of  Evidence  has  been  much  enriched  by  the  decisions 
in  the  "  Queen's  Case."— Zor^  Camplell. 

The  House  of  Lords  resumed  its  sittings  on  October  3rd,  and 
was,  on  that  day,  addressed  by  Brougham  in  one  of  the  most  pow- 
erful  orations  that  ever  proceeded  from  human  lips.  His  arguments, 
his  observations,  his  tones,  his  attitude,  his  eye,  left  an  impression 


Caush  Calibres. 


on  every  mind  which  is  scarcely  ever  renewed  without  exciting 
strong  emotion.  The  peroration  was  sublime.  "  Spare  the  altar, 
which  must  stagger  with  the  shock  that  rends  its  kindred  throne." 
Ekskine  rushed  out  op  the  House  in  tears. — Lord  Denman. 

On  August  21st  the  examination  of  witnesses  began  and  lasted 
till  September  7th,  including  those  two  great  master  pieces  of 

FORENSIC  SKILL,   THE    CROSS-EXAMINATIONS   OP   ThEODORE  MaSOCCHI 

BY  Brougham  and  op  Louise  Demont  by  Williams. — Lord  Denman. 

The  Speeches  of  the  advocates  on  both  sides,  may  be  perused 
as  models  of  high  order,  in  their  respective  styles  of  forensic  elo- 
quence. — Hughes'  History  of  England. 

The  defense  was  conducted  with  transcendent  ability  by  her  coun- 
sel; the  speech  of  Mr.  Brougham  in  particular,  is  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  forensic  eloquence  in  the  English  language. — James 
Taylor^  D.D.^  in  the  Imperial  Dictionary  of  Biography. 

There  probably  would  have  been  more  instances  of  unseemly  in- 
terference with  the  ordinary  course  of  legal  inquiry  if  one  man 
(Mr.  Brougham,)  had  not  stood  in  the  midst  of  that  a.S3embly, 
whose  wliole  bearing  was  that  of  authority  and  command ;  whose 
look  denouncing  "battle  dangerous"  if  any  rash  offense  were  given, 
made  the  boldest  peer  prudent.  ^  *  *  There  was  anether  of  the 
Queen's  law-officers  (Mr.  Denman,)  who  dared  to  fix  his  eyes  upon 
a  prince  of  the  blood,  exclaiming  "  come  forth,  thou  slanderer." 
On  the  3d  of  October,  Mr.  Brougham  entered  upon  the  Queen's 
defense.  His  speech  on  that  day  and  the  following  may  be  cited 
amongst  the  greatest  examples  of  forensic  eloquence. — Knighfs 
History  of  England. 


PEICE  PEE  VOLrME. 

Bound  in  Best  English  Cloth,     $3.50 

Bound  in   Law  Sheep, 4.50 

Bound  IN  Half  Calf 6.00 


"TO  ALL  ATTOKNEYS  WHO  WANT  A  CLIENT." 


ADVENTURES   OF   AN  ATTORNEY 

IN    SEARCH    OF    PRACTICE. 

By  SAMUEL   WARREN,  D.  C.  L., 
Authoro/"Diaryo/aPhysicia7t"  "Ten  Thotisanda  Year,"  "Law  Studies,"  &;'c.,&'c. 


PRINTED   ON   FINE   TINTED    PAPER,   AND   ELEGANTLY    BOUND    IN  THE  BEST 
ENGLISH   CLOTH. 

Sent  by  Mail  or  Express,  charges  paid.     Price  $2.25. 


From  the  CHICAGO   LEGAL   NEWS. 

"Aside  from  its  curious  history,  and  the  recommendation 
afforded  by  the  name  of  its  eminent  author,  the  book  cannot  fail 
to  attract  and  please  all  general  readers,  as  well  as  members  of 
the  Legal  profession. 

"  Legal  practitioners  who  have  long  labored  in  the  profession, 
will  find  in  this  book  accurate  descriptions  of  the  painful  though 
ridiculous  blunders,  and  inflating  small  triumphs  of  their  earlier 
days,  and  not  unpleasant  reflection  of  the  probationary  period 
when  they  were  waiting  for  clients.  Young  men  just  starting  in 
the  profession  will,  from  the  shrewd  advice  and  practical  illus- 
trations contained  in  this  volume,  though  not  numbered  in  the 
curriculum  of  the  law  schools,  be  able  to  avoid  many  errors,  and 
obtain  valuable  hints  for  their  guidance. 

"To  general  readers  the  work  presents  a  series  of  entertaining 
incidents,  portraits  of  character,  and  a  history  of  how  an  ordinary 
man  succeeds  to  competence  without  epic  aids. 

"The  reader  will  find  many  foibles  and  characteristics  of  his 
own  reflected  in  this  life  of  another,  and  will  be  alternately  in- 
clined to  laugh  at  himself,  and  be  proud  of  himself  Dr.  Warren 
has  no  where  in  his  later  works,  which  have  made  his  name  fa- 
mous, displayed  to  better  advantage  his  power  of  dissecting 
motives  and  presenting  in  a  critical  but  nevertheless  always 
indulgent  and  charitable  manner,  personal  eccentricities,  and  the 
weak  and  strong  elements  of  character." 


NEW,  REVISED  AND  ILLUSTRATED  EDITION  OF 

LORD   CAMPBELL'S 
LIVES  OF  THE  CHIEF  JUSTICES 

OF    ENGLAND. 

This  remarkable  work  has  been  long  out  of  print,  and  by  reason 
of  its  scarcity  the  price  had  advanced  to  an  exorbitant  sum.  Anew 
and  carefully  revised  edition  has  been  prepared  and  published  in  four 
volumes,  handsomely  printed  on  the  best  tinted  paper,  and  illustrated 
with  portraits,  and  views  of  Westminster  Hall,  Inns  of  Courts,  etc. 

Lord  Campbell,  is,  by  common  consent,  the  most  scholarly, 
the  most  entertaining  and  instructive  legal  biographer  of  the  present 
century. 

Price  per  volume,  in  best  English  Cloth,         $3.50. 
Half  Morocco,  .....  6.00. 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS. 


Himself  one  of  the  most  eminent,  lawyers  and  statesmen  of  his  era, 
he  could  not  write  the  lives  of  great  statesmen  and  lawyers  without 
interweaving  curious  information,  and  suggesting  valuable  principles 
of  judgment  and  useful  practical  maxims;  but  his  biographies  have 
the  additional  attraction  of  an  easy,  animated  flow  of  interesting  nar- 
rative. His  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices  are  not  only  entertaining — 
peculiarly  so  to  lawyers — but  are  important  to  be  studied  by  every  one 
who  desires  to  attain  an  acquaintance  with  the  constitutional  history 
of  England,  which  must  be  understood  before  our  American  consti- 
tutional law  can  be  comprehended.  We  are  glad  to  see  in  such  hand- 
some dress  a  work  of  such  sterling  merit — one  of  such  great  labor,  and 
of  such  richly  diversified  interest,  that  it  cannot  fail  to  be  of  lasting 
value  and  estimation;  and  we  hope  that  the  liberal  enterprise  of 
Messrs.  Cockcroft  &  Co.  may  be  abundantly  rewarded. 

Albany  Evening  Times. 

Campbell  is  the  most  entertaining  of  legal  biographers.  The  Lives 
of  Sir  Edward  Coke  and  Sir  Matthew  Hale  are  masterpieces  of  their 
kind,  and  we  would  call  special  attention  to  the  masterly  character- 
ization of  two  such  widely  different  men  as  Lord  Chief  Justices  Mans- 
field and  Kenyon.  He  had  no  real  respect  for  anybody,  however 
celebrated,  but  he  is  the  most  charming  of  legal  gossips.  His  Lives  of 
the  Chief  Justices  are  amonsr  our  most  cherished  books. — Boston  Globe, 


THE     LIFE 

OP 

THOMAS,  FIEST   LORD   BENMAN, 

FOKMERLY 

LOED  CHIEF  JUSTICE  OP  ENGLAND. 

Bx  SiE  JOSEPH  ARNOULD, 

'LATE  JUDGE  OF  THE   HIGH   COURT  OF  BOMBAY. 

Illustrated  uith  portraits  engraved  on  steel.    2  vols.,  $7  00. 

These  volumes  are  uniform  with   the  new  illustrated 
8vo  edition  of  the  "Chief  Justices,"  and  con- 
stitute Vols.  v.  and  VI.  of  the  series. 

"  This  volume  brings  down  the  Lives  of  the  Chief  Justices  to  the 
retirement  of  Lord  Denman,  in  1850,  and  the  appointment  of  Lord 
Campbell  as  his  successor.  Lord  Campbell  wrote  the  lives  of  the 
chief  justices  to  Denman's  time,  and  the  fifth  and  sixth  volumes  of  the 
pres(!nt  edition  (the  handsomest  and  best  ever  published  in  this 
country)  are  appropriated  to  Arnould's  Life  of  Denman,  who,  for  over 
seventeen  years,  filled  so  honorably  and  ably  the  high  office  of  Chief 
Justice  of  England.  Denman  presided  in  the  court  during  an  import- 
ant era  in  the  hi.story  of  our  more  recent  jurisprudence,  and  earned 
the  title  of  the  '  good  and  great'  chief  justice.  Mr.  Edward  Everett, 
in  a  letter  to  him,  on  the  occasion  of  his  resignation,  truthfully 
observed:  'Your  course  as  a  statesman  and  magistrate,  and  in  both 
capacities  as  a  great  asserter  of  liberal  principles,  has  probably  com- 
manded a  more  unanimous  sympathy  in  the  United  States  than  even  in 
your  own  England.'  Every  American  lawyer  will  feel  a  more  intimate 
acquaintance  with  English  law  by  reading  the  lives  of  these  sages — 
lives  full  of  struggle,  but  crowned  with  lasting  and  well  deserved 
honors." — Central  Law  Journal. 


NEW,  REVISED  /^ND   ILLUSTRATED  EDITION  OF 

CAMPBELL'S 
LIVES  OF  THE  LOED  .CHANCELLORS 

AND  KEEPERS  OF  THE  GREAT  SEAL  OF  ENGLAND. 

From  the  Earliest  Times  till  tJie  Reign  of  Victoria, 

INCLUDING    THB 

LIVES  OF  LOEDS  LYNDHURST   AND   BEOTJGHAM. 
Edited  by  JOHN  ALLAN"  MALLORY, 

OP   THE  NEW  YORK  EAR. 

FINELY  PRINTED  ON  HEAVY  LAID  PAPER. 

FULLY  ILLUSTRATED,   and  bound  uniform  with  the  new  octavo  edition 
of  the  Lord  Chief  Justices,  by  the  same  Author. 

Cloth  Beveled,       10  vols,  large  8vo.      $3.50  pervoL 
Law  Sheep,  "  "       "  4.50         " 

Half  Calf  Extra,         "  "       "  6.00 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS. 


In  presenting  for  our  contemplation,  in  these  volumes,  the  lives 
and  characters  of  the  most  illustrious  lawyers  of  by-gone  centuries, 
Lord  Campbell  performed  an  herculean  labor,  but  it  is  one  that  will 
remain  a  monument  to  his  own  ability,  diligence,  and  attachment  to 
his  profession,  for  all  coming  time. — Evening  Telegraph,  Pittsburgh. 

Notwithstanding  the  spiteful  witticism  of  Lerd  Brougham,  that  to  be 
immortalized  in  biography  by  Lord  Campbell  added  new  terrors  to 
death,  the  biographies  of  the  judicial  magnates  of  England  by  the 
latter  continue  to  be  received  as  of  the  highest  interest  and  value  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  in  all  probability  will  henceforth  stand 
unquestioned  as  a  graphic,  clear-sighted,  critical,  but  not  unfair 
presentation  of  their  lives  and  characters.  The  publishers  deserve  the 
thanks  of  the  public  for  bringing  the  volumes  out  in  so  handsome 
itnd  solid  a  form,  and  so  fully  illustrated. — Gazette. 

The  vivacity  of  Lord  Campbell's  style,  the  extent  of  his  learning, 
the  profusion  of  anecdotes  and  sharp  etchings  of  character,  make 
the  volume  one  of  the  most  entertaining  even  to  the  general  reader, 
to   whom  legal  history  is  dry. — Hartford  Gourant. 

This  work  should  be  most  extensively  read.  These  volumes  'will 
be  almost  as  useful  as  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  and  should  be 
m  the  hands  of  every  student  of  law. — Troy  Whig. 


MEMOEIES  of  WESTMINSTER  HALL 

A   COLLECTION    OF 

Interesting  Incidents,  Anecdotes  and  Historical  Sketches 

RELATING  TO  WESTMINSTER  HALL, 

Its  Famous  Judges  and  Lawyers  and  its  Great  Trials. 

V^STH     AN     H2STOi?2CAL     mTRODUCTiON 

BY 

EDWARD    FOSS,     F.  R.  S. 

AUTHOR  OF  THE  LIVES  qF  THE  JUDGES  OP  ENGLAND. 
HANDSOMELY    ILLUSTRATED. 

2  Vols.  8vo.        -        -        $7.00. 

SUPERBLY  PRINTED  ON  TINTED  PAPER  AND  ELEGANTLY  BOUND. 


There  is  no  other  monument  in  all  England  so  vital  and  so  vocal  aa 
Westminster  Hall.  Its  foundations  were  laid  about  eight  hundred  years 
ago.  Intended  at  first  as  a  place  for  royal  festivals  and  ceremonials  of 
state,  it  has  come,  through  the  manifold  changes  in  the  progress  of  the 
British  nation  to  be  the  synonym  of  its  history.  There  have  been 
tried  its  distinguished  criminals;  its  halls  have  resounded  with  the 
loftiest  strains  of  eloquence  that  ever  incited  war  or  counselled  peace  ; 
it  has  echoed  to  the  strifes  between  kings  and  commons  ;  its  floors  have 
been  wet  with  the  tears  of  queens  thurst  down  from  their  high  places 
to  become  the  victims  of  political  persecution  or  of  personal  malice. 
Through  it  passed  Anne  Boleyn  on  her  way  to  the  block ;  there  Sir 
Thomas  More  and  the  Earl  of  Strafford  and  other  illustrious  friends 
of  liberty  were  impleaded  for  offences  against  the  royal  prerogative  ; 
there  sat  the  Long  Parliament,  and  there  the  heroic  Oliver  thundered 
the  advent  of  the  Commonwealth. 

Through  its  corridors  still  echoes  the  resonant  eloquence  of  O'CoN- 
NELL,  pleading  for  the  rights  of  down-trodden  Ireland :  around  its 
columns  are  yet  entwined  the  imperitihable  laurels  won  by  the  im- 
petuous philippics  of  Fox,  the  glittering  and  persuasive  logic  of 
Sheridan,  the  imperial  strength  of  Burke  and  the  stately  dogma- 
tism of  ihe  younger  Pitt. 

For  England,  Westminster  Hall  is  both  a  glory  and  a  shame.  We 
are  content  to  venerate  it   from  afar,  and  earnestly  hope  that  for  our 


republic  tliere  may  never  rise  an  historic  edifice  so  filled  as  it  is  with 
records  over  which  mankind  must  weep,  even  though  admiring  the 
splendid  shrine  that  contains  them. 

The  annals  of  Westminster  Hall,  though  darkened  along  their  couraa 
by  many  a  crime,  have  nevertheless  fascinations  of  an  extraordinary 
character  for  those  who  love  to  study  history  as  a  concrete  philosophy. 

The  pleadings  of  Erskine,  the  fiery  and  ferocious  eloquence  of 
Rkocgham  and  the  grave  decisions  of  eminent  jurists,  can  never  be  con 
fined  to  the  precincts  of  Westminster  Hall.  So  large  is  truth,  that  they 
who  speak  it,  speak  it  to  all  and  forever.  Hence  the  genius  which  has 
Bhed  its  lustre  over  the  courts,  the  parliaments,  and  the  convocations 
of  Westminster  is  as  imperishable  now  as  when  it  first  broke  into  dawn 
or  shot  into  meridian  splendor.  While  mankind  is  one,  and  a  common 
nature  pleads  in  behalf  of  common  interests,  all  civilized  peoples  will 
be  debtors  to  those  great  leaders  who,  in  times  of  high  emergency, 
wrested  freedom  from  its  foes  and  made  their  lives  a  sacrifice  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  should  come  after  them.  If  true  nobility  of  char- 
acter is  to  be  estimated,  not  by  what  it  gains,  but  by  what  it  gives, 
then  we  have  all  a  sacred  trust  to  guard  in  the  memories  of  the  men 
who  displayed  their  courage  whether  as  judges  or  legislators,  culprits 
or  advocates,  in  Westminster  Hall,  in  behalf  of  the  sacred  cause  of 
freedom.  Not  by  theorists  has  the  world  got  its  wealth.  Utopian 
dreamers  live  and  die  in  the  midst  of  their  own  imaginings.  As  sil- 
vered clouds  float  emptily  in  the  sky,  beautiful  to  the  eye,  yet  full  of 
mockery  to  the  parched  earth,  so  mere  speculative  philanthropists  have 
bedizened  and  disappointed  the  weary  waiting  heart  of  depressed 
humanity.  The  real  benefactors  of  our  race  are  the  men  who  act  and 
sufiFer.  They  give  flame  to  their  convictions.  Their  beliefs  are  formu- 
lated into  deeds.  They  stand  beside  the  anvil  and  forge  the  bolts  that 
shall  be  felt.  They  die  and  become  more  living,  when  dead,  than  when 
they  were  sweating  and  bleeding  in  the  flesh.  He  who  did  the  most 
for  mankind  and  the  ages  said  the  least.  He  embodied  his  life  in  a 
force,  and  the  force  was  the  throbbing  of  his  heart.  So,  more  and  more 
criticism  must  fix  the  worth  or  worthlessness  of  men  by  what  they 
have  done  in  the  service  of  their  kind.  Tried  by  this  rule,  the  memo- 
rials of  Westminster  Hall  have  a  lasting  value.  This  is  well  illustra- 
ted in  the  many  anecdotes  and  sketches  of  such  men  as  Lord  Ellen- 
borough,  Lord  Thurlow,  Sergeant  Vauguan,  Lord  Lyndiiurst 
and  others.  Judging  from  the  volume  now  in  hand,  we  are  inclined 
to  think  that  this  work  will  be  received  with  great  favor  by  lovers  oi 
substantial  knowledge. — Christian  at  Work. 


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